


Path of Repentance

by shinreizen



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Gen, Minor Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 00:45:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12047796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinreizen/pseuds/shinreizen
Summary: Three years after the destruction of Hi no Kuni and Konohagakure no Sato, a young blond Hokage and his repenting companion must journey back to the past to salvage another future –- save Uchiha Itachi and destroy Uchiha Madara.





	1. Prologue – Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer : Naruto does not belong to me because my name is not Masashi Kishimoto.
> 
> Beta: KyLewin. Any discrepancies you might find here are more likely from me butchering on the language afterwards :) *apologies in advance*

**o…oOOo…o**

The lone figure stared silently at the view beneath him from the top of Shodaime's head. In front of him, the looming giant carving of Uchiha Madara stood proudly, ready to battle his opponent. The same stoic expression was on Senju Hashirama's face, only he could not really see it from his current position. The figure continued his silent vigil in the early morning light. He had been there for almost an hour, and it was time to get back. A subtle shift in the air…

"Hokage-sama..." a voice suddenly spoke next to him. The blond Hokage barely glanced to acknowledge this new companion, but a small smile on his face indicated that he had already known of his presence long before his arrival.

"You know you shouldn't be formal when we are alone, teme," he replied. "Well, what brings you here so early in the morning?"

"Hn…" an oh so familiar smirk formed on his lips. "Just thinking that I could find you here, dobe." All formalities were gone now from his stance and features.

"Heh, didn't know that you would miss me so much! Be careful Sasuke, your stalking habit might lead one to think that you have a thing for me…" a kunai whizzed at him, but the grinning Hokage didn't even bat an eyelid as he effortlessly shifted, caught the flying missile and suddenly appeared behind Sasuke with said weapon pointed at his friend's jugular.

Another 'hn', the smirk only grew bolder. A slight glance at the man behind him, and he said, "Don't flatter yourself, Naruto. You know we've got important things to do. Since troubles always follow whenever you're around, who else would watch your back, if not me?"

"Heh, looks like it's  _you_  who need babysitting, my friend." As if to make a point, he nudged the tip of the kunai at Sasuke's vein. Sasuke remained impassive at the supposed threat. With supreme agility, he moved out of the way, suddenly appearing on top of Madara's statue head.

"Che… don't think because you're the Hokage I  _wouldn't_  kick your ass,  _Rokudaime_ -sama. Besides, no currently living shinobi or kunoichi could stand a chance against me…" he paused and then added softly to himself, "except you… of course."

Naruto, unfortunately, heard him.

"Aww, the last surviving Uchiha, admitting that someone can actually defeat him? I'm flattered, but you're forgetting Gaara. What about the other kage, not to mention any potential  _future_  threats, Sasuke?" Naruto's tone, although still casual and teasing, now got a hint of seriousness to it. "But I bet that Sandaime and Yondaime could still give you a run for your money. Don't you think so? And it's them we're going to visit, sooner or later."

Sasuke casually ran his fingers through his hair, which was messed a little by the light morning breeze. He looked around him. As the dawn came, he noticed clear water flowing smoothly between the ravines, making its steady way to the sea, the sound of the birds chirping loudly to celebrate the new day. All seemed normal and peaceful, as if nothing bad had happened.

But appearances could be deceiving. No, things had gone bad. In fact, they'd gone worst any other time in the history of shinobi world and he had been one of those involved in that destruction. One thing led to another, his path of vengeance had almost shattered his humanity. Realization came too late, and he decided to end his life for what he had unwittingly committed. As if a quick seppuku would be enough for his sins. Too bad fate had decreed that his punishment would be in the path of repentance until he died a natural death.

And that path of repentance came with the most unpredictable shinobi named Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto – his Hokage, his friend, his blood brother, his most precious bond. Since then, Sasuke had sworn his life and soul to protect their bond, although he would rather die than admit it out loud in front of Naruto…

"I need to clear up a few things. First, I don't flatter you, and you know exactly what I mean. Second, I know I can stand at par with the Kazekage, might even have some advantages against him. Speaking of him, the Kazekage has confirmed his consent to the invitation. As per request, he and the other Suna-nin will arrive at the estimated time. He expects to meet you at the Hokage office."

The stoic Uchiha glanced briefly at the rising sun to check the time before he turned to look at Naruto's direction.

"Back to our topic, after what we've been through, other kage of this era are not even worth mentioning. The only potential future threats we should be concerned with right now are those in the past, where all the roots of problems come from. A lot of things need to be considered before any actions can be taken, which I'm pretty sure would include both of us in the plan. As for how I'd do against Sandaime and Yondaime, that remains to be seen, though I'm willing to bet that it would  _not_  be a walk in the park. They were legends, after all."

His piece of mind being said, he waited for reply. Getting none, he turned his face towards the young Hokage, but whatever he had expected from the blond was not what he was looking at right now.

At that moment, he swore that Naruto looked almost like a comic relief. His eyes had opened widely and blinked owlishly, gasping and  _counting_ …? noise could be heard from him, and he had turned red all over, finger pointing accusingly at him…

Naruto opened his mouth, but couldn't seem to really get the words out.

Sasuke waited patiently for the blond to burst out.

Naruto tried again, but seemed to have another dumb blond moment…

Finally, whatever mental problem he was having seemed to get worked out. "Oh... holy crap! Holy crap! You're actually ranting! You're what, like saying eleven standard sentences, with a hundred and seventy-seven words in total! Wow! If I didn't know it was you talking, I might think that you're somebody else!"

The stoic man had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at him, "Hn. Just shut up, dobe. Actually, I'm supposed to tell you something. Naruto… she's finally done it."

The unpredictable blond suddenly shifted to what Sasuke had dubbed as the "Hokage mode." That new information made his face softened a little. After knowing each other for almost eight years, full words and elaborated explanation didn't really matter with them. Gestures and expression, even the slightest of movement could indicate something that other people would be hard-pressed to guess. "Really… I never doubt her. So, what's her condition now?"

An almost-smile appeared on Sasuke's face. "She's suffering from chakra depletion and sleep deprivation, but nothing serious. It's her we're talking about, after all. A nice sleep and rest will make her as good as new tomorrow. I heard she said something like 'I've done it' just before she fainted dead away. She couldn't even get to the bed herself…"

"So, you've got her safely tucked into bed. Did she realize that you'd been there all along?"

There was a moment of silent, followed by his answer. "I could see that although she was really concentrating on her task, she was slightly distracted on occasion, as if she suspected that someone would barge in anytime. But I didn't think that she was aware of my presence. Even if she did, she would know that it was a directive from the Hokage himself."

"Oh, she'll know that it was you, at least she will after she wakes up and finds herself sleeping on the bed instead of the floor. Any other ANBU watching her wouldn't even dare to breach the mission parameters, except in extreme case of emergency. An exhausted medic-nin who can really take care of herself even in comatose state is hardly a valid case," the Hokage said, a hand shielding his sensitive eyes from the morning sunlight.

"Yeah, don't think I didn't know how many layers of sealing you've done to ensure that nobody can interrupt her work, and you've allowed my chakra signatures to be recognized by the seals so that no harm would come my way…" Sasuke replied. "If you were there you wouldn't simply be watching from a distance, you'd stay with her until she has to throw you out of the house."

"Haha, that's why I didn't want to be there myself, don't want her to get mad at me, you know…" Naruto said sheepishly.

"Hn… anyone would get mad if you kept pestering and whining and practically making stupid pranks for attention just because you're bored… typical dobe," the last surviving Uchiha retorted.

The reply he received was a swooshing kunai aimed directly at his throat, together with a whining 'teme!' from his aggressor. Only his natural reflexes and the large amount of time he'd spent getting accustomed to Naruto's speed saved him from the lethal weapon. A childish Naruto was dangerous enough; a serious Naruto would end up with his opponent dead, no question asked, although the young Hokage had only ever killed as the last option.

'But that doesn't mean he couldn't accidentally kill someone else while bickering! Wait, I don't bicker! A lesser man could have died from that attack! Baka Hokage!' The stoic ANBU commander thought silently, shifting his balance and suddenly surged forward to the other man. His left hand flashed out in his trajectory before his body flipping back to his place, and Naruto had to execute some complex movements to the right to avoid a hail of senbon coming up his way.

Both had retained their own position on top of each statue, Naruto with his trademark grin at the moment, while a wider than usual smirk appeared on Sasuke's normally stoic face.

"See? That's exactly what I mean. No need to get excited, dobe. You know how hard it is to control your hyperactive urges. You might hurt someone unintentionally. Besides, it's not like what I said is untrue."

The young blond made a face at that remarks. "Aww, you shouldn't be so mean, teme! You know I'd only hurt the enemies, and other people aren't foolish enough to invoke my wrath, except you of course. But like you said, I'm bored now. So, care to spar?"

An amused smile crept slowly on the raven-haired man's face at the challenge, but there was a dangerous glint in his dark eyes now. Although his hand was rested casually on the hilt of his katana, his body was taut, ready to spring into action at any moment. "Just bring it on, Naruto!"

Within an hour and a half, any loyal Konoha shinobi passing through the border area at Valley of the End would simply have dismissed the raging spar as daily occurrence and went on their way. However, any foreign shinobi with illegal intention to Konoha, who were unlucky enough to encounter the two legends (or rather the two legends purposely made their warning known with killing intents reaching their targets in the surrounding forests), would have to turn tails and flee for their lives. Not that the two cared enough to do anything though... the Konoha's barriers and any ANBU teams on patrol duty would take care of them.

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

It was already dark when Sakura came to her sense. Her body stretched sensuously on the bed, sleepiness making her feel reluctant to wake up. However, the blasting alarm had purposely denied her attempt to continue snoozing. She reached blindly on top of the small table near her bed, but couldn't find the annoying thing.

"Oww, just shut the hell up already! Can't you see I'm taking a break here? It's a damn long mission…" she paused, as if trying to comprehend her situation.

Her head tilted to the lab, which was an extension of her bedroom. She tried to ignore the loud noise coming from that freaking alarm.

"... Nani?" She abruptly sat on the bed, noticing that she was still wearing her last two days clothing, minus her gear. "Wait, I remember finishing the final phase, just before I collapsed to the floor due to exhaustion. I'm supposed to wake up on the floor, not on my bed, and I'm pretty sure that I didn't sleep-walk to my bed…"

She blushed a little. "Naruto wouldn't do that; he would simply come in earlier. That left Sasuke…" She walked groggily from her bed to the lab, and switched off her alarm. Later she stripped off her stained clothing, and threw them, her comforter, and the thin mattress into the laundry basket and went into the bathroom for a long hot shower.

The pink-haired girl only came out after one hour later. 'Wow, I couldn't really remember the last time I've been able to indulge like that. Who would have thought that Naruto could be such a slave driver?' She gave a glance at her digital timer, "Just about time…"

In another ten minutes, the femme-fatale kunoichi shunshin-ed out of her house to give her mission report to the Hokage.

**To be continued…**


	2. Prologue – Part 2

**o…oOOo…o**

"Is there anything else that you need to inform me of, besides what's written in the report?" the Hokage asked her.

"Ah, just would like to give you this," she took out another scroll from her small backpack and handed the scroll to him. "I've summarized a special list of latest medications created by me, together with the ingredients, properties and possible effects."

"It's the same type as the one that I gave to you earlier. Only you, Sasuke, and I can open it, although you can always adjust the seals later. Thought you might need that," she added.

Naruto studied the scroll a little before he gathered a small amount of chakra into his fingertips. Sakura watched silently as he wrapped his fingers around it and surged his chakra into the scroll. It glowed a little, recognizing his chakra pattern. Anyone who was not authorized to look at the contents would find a blank scroll instead. The young Hokage opened the scroll to see at least ten types of medicines sealed onto the surface, complete information that was concise and precise. His brilliant blue eyes widened for a few seconds before he raised his face and grinned at her.

"Wow, this is so cool! You're the best, Sakura-chan!" he said gleefully. "That is so thoughtful of you. Thanks a lot!"

The kunoichi put her left hand on her hip while her right hand formed a victory sign which she waved in front of his face while grinning wickedly in return. "Hee hee. No problem at all, Naruto. I'll be happy if it will be useful to you."

"Besides, I'll be taking your responsibilities during your leave, right? Consider this as a parting gift," her expression changed imperceptibly, a reaction that did not go unnoticed by the Hokage who was watching her curiously at the moment.

Although she had tried to be happy and hid her turmoil of emotion behind a carefree manner, Naruto could easily see through her false amiability. In fact, since the day he had disclosed his crazy mission plan six months ago, those few who had been privy to such information seemed to be on a knife-edge. Almost all of them had been strongly opposed to the idea in the first place, but Sakura the most ardent. However, after he had stated firmly that it was his rights as the Hokage to think of what was best for his village, everyone reluctantly agreed. That didn't stop them from trying to change his mind from time to time, though they had failed miserably.

Sakura was thinking along the same lines. In a few hours, two of the strongest shinobi the world had ever produced would be leaving them to go on a suicide mission, or at least that was how she would like to refer to their quest. It was not because she doubted their abilities to complete missions. Both of them were far stronger than the late Akatsuki members, Naruto especially. Heck, they were even stronger than most kage, with full qualities of a perfect shinobi. Besides, who would question someone with the capabilities to defeat an immortal single-handedly?

No, the problems lay in the consequences of their action. They would attempt a forbidden jutsu to travel back to the past in order to track the most fearsome enemy to ever exist on this earth, someone who had almost obliterated their country and ninja village, were it not for Naruto's part. Someone whose vendetta was so deep that he didn't even care that he was spilling the blood of the innocents. Someone who was not above manipulating, deceiving, and destroying people's lives in his morbid quest for immortality.

Uchiha Madara…

And in order to kill that man for good, they would stop at nothing, even if it cost them their own lives.

Unconsciously, she balled her hand into a fist. Collecting herself, she tried to smile, but Naruto had already moved from his seat and swiftly got to her side.

"Sakura…" his voice was laden with concern.

"You can always see right through me, no matter how much I fake it, right?" she asked softly.

Slowly, he put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her firmly towards him. She leaned closer, accepting the strength and comfort he had so freely given to her.

"I think everyone is doing it nowadays. They understand the implications of what we are trying to do. Even I am not really sure where we will land after I execute the jutsu. From our research and experimentation based on the clues and chakra residue left by him, Sasuke and I have come to the conclusion that he should be somewhere during the Third Great Ninja War, probably a few years prior to my father becoming the Hokage," he said quietly.

"Because of Itachi?" the pink-haired kunoichi asked.

He considered for a while before answering, "Yeah, could be one of the reasons. Other reasons are because of my father and Kyubi. The timeline would be perfect for him to start again. From what he said to me during our last encounter, he really admired and hated both Shodaime and Yondaime."

A moment of pause, then he continued, "To put it bluntly, they both kicked his ass. Besides, both Hokage managed to thwart a few of his key plans, regardless of the fact that they were separated by a few generations. A very injured pride, one might say. The most interesting thing is his kekkei genkai was defeated by theirs. Something an Uchiha can never accept, especially if one thinks he's an immortal."

His last statement made her wonder whether Sasuke could  _ever_  accept the fact that Naruto had surpassed him…

Sakura shifted awkwardly from his arm before she gathered her composure. As much as she needed the friendly comfort from him, he was also her Hokage. Although there would be no one to watch, it would seem inappropriate to hug your Hokage in the conference room, especially if you had just submitted a top secret mission report.

She smiled sadly, ignoring the confused look from the Hokage. Leave it to Naruto to react the only way he knew how to react, regardless of whether it was proper or not. One of the most outstanding things about Naruto was the fact that he could be so blissfully compassionate when it came to others' wellbeing. It was one of the qualities that drew people to him. He had this unique power to inspire people to change their negative perspectives and views towards a positive one, thus making people putting faith on him.

Had he ever realized of his importance?

"Honestly, I don't want you or Sasuke to leave us. We need you here. What if the other ninja countries decide that this is a great opportunity to attack Konoha once you and Sasuke are gone? It is a miracle that we are doing so well in just three years, and it's all thanks to you. Don't you see that Konoha would be vulnerable without your leadership?" she asked.

As if he was oblivious to the inquiry, the blond Hokage walked calmly to the wall behind his seat, where six pictures of Konoha's Hokage hung proudly in a row. His right hand producing a small trail of chakra onto the surface of the wall, activating the hidden seals on it, and suddenly a secret panel right on the center of it slid open to reveal a small treasure box. He took the box and put on his table while Sakura watched expectantly.

"What is it?" She asked curiously.

He didn't answer her question; instead he simply opened the box and spilled out the contents in front of her. As she had suspected earlier, it was a set of scrolls. In fact, there were five scrolls inside the box, each with its own respective colors. He took the yellow scroll in his palm and said, "I think you should have guessed by now. This represents economy," he pointed to the next scrolls using the one he was holding as the pointer, "the green one reveals the status of known shinobi including missing-nin and those in the academy, blue for the proposed plans or future execution, and red shows status alerts on possible threats. Invaluable information… on Konoha and each known ninja village. Top secret intel gathered mostly by Sasuke and Neji."

"I see. The secret panel and the box… Now I know the reason why you needed the blood samples of the other council members. We'll convene our meeting as soon as possible for distribution of duties," Sakura slowly took the black scroll and studied it with curiosity.

"Be careful with that one," his tone dropped a notch.

"So… this is it?" She said quietly. "May I?"

A nod from the Hokage, and Sakura applied her chakra on the scroll. Then she spread it out on the table. Whatever she saw sealed on the surface of the scroll made her gasp in surprise. She unsealed one of the contents to reveal a thick black hard-covered book.

"Kami-sama…" she uttered the words in amazement. Steadily, she browsed several pages before she sealed the book back into the scroll. "I'll study this, I promise," she said solemnly, the black scroll now tucked safely in her small backpack. Meanwhile, Naruto had already returned the wooden box and its other contents to the secret place.

"To answer your question just now, I know that we could be vulnerable," he started. "However, with all the intelligence that we've gathered so far, Konoha can still have its advantages against other countries. I didn't master sealing jutsu for nothing. We may lack manpower, but whatever resources we have will be fully utilized to accommodate that weakness," he added confidently. "Although it's not good to depend on our allies, I trust Gaara with my life. I've talked to him right after his arrival this morning, and he has promised that nothing harms Konoha during our absence. We've taken all the possible security measures, but we need someone who can lead well," he smiled and gave her a wink, "so, lead well until our return."

Then he abruptly turned to face her and spoke calmly, brilliant sapphires bore into her emerald's orbs, "Never forget that the Will of Fire will always prevail. Have faith in me as much as I have faith in everyone here…"

She opened her mouth to speak, but the young Hokage beat her to it, his goofy smile obvious, as he said cheerfully, "Now let's get out of here. We got lots of things to do. Don't forget to be there on time, Sakura-chan!"

With that remark, he simply vanished from his spot, nothing to indicate his presence there, not even the swishing sound made by the movement of his long coat against his jonin outfit.

The kunoichi stared for a while at the vacated spot, and then shifted her attention to the pictures of the Hokage in front of her. Her green eyes lingered reverently at the only female in the group before she switched her view. Those were merely pictures of Hokage of Konoha, but she somehow could sense uncanny wisdom and strengths pervaded the room, as if the people in the frames would always watch for the future generations. Watching and guiding, all the time.

That thought sent shivers to her spine. Nevertheless, she couldn't help comparing between the fourth and sixth Hokage. If it weren't for the slight whisker masks and younger countenance on Naruto's face, she would think that they were one and the same person.

She stared for a few moments at her teammate's face in the frame and whispered to herself, amazed at the man the boy had become, "I'm so proud of you, Naruto…"

Seconds later, the small conference room was empty. However, if one looked very, very carefully, a figure could be seen standing at the top of the Hokage tower. In the bright moonlit night, his black hair a stark contrast with his pale features and white-gray shirt, his right hand calmly resting on the hilt of his kusanagi, two blazing Sharingan eyes scanning the area like a hawk.

But then again, any ANBU in the vicinity would respectfully acknowledge the presence of their commander.

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

He stood silently in the darkness, staring at what seemed to be an endless list of names engraved solemnly on the surface of a memorial stone.

Names of those who had sacrificed their own lives in their significant parts to protect their precious village and people.

In fact, too many names had been listed there that they had to raise a few and larger memorial stones to commemorate the Konoha heroes who had fallen in the battles.

At first, he had hated that place with all his heart. To him, looking at the memorial would bring nothing but a painful reminder of those whom he had failed to protect, regardless whether he knew of them personally or not. Ironically, a number of them had died to protect him, simply because they believed in him, that he someday would end the raging wars and bring peace to the world.

Such faith they had on him that they had disregarded the fact that he harbored Kyubi no Yoko, the nine-tailed beast that once had attacked Konohagakure during a deadly rampage and caused the deaths of many shinobi and villagers. A great pandemonium that was stopped by Yondaime Hokage at the cost of his life, which later noted the beginning phase of Naruto's childhood sufferings as a Jinchuriki.

But finally, they had acknowledged him as a person who deserved to be treated with the same respect as others, not a demon. They had willingly made him the next Hokage, not because of Tsunade's last will or command, but because he deserved that title. He had done a great job on it, but he regretted the fact that some people who were very close to him were no longer there to see the fruition of his hard work.

All the more reason to leave that ground alone. He didn't need a constant reminder of his personal pain.

Ero-sannin, Tsunade oba-chan, Kakashi-sensei, Shizune nee-chan…

Somehow, Naruto's perception had changed over time. He didn't really know how, but he thought it might be related to certain events that happened a few years ago. After Sasuke's retrieval, the former missing-nin was put under chakra-binds to prevent him from using chakra for six months, but he was still allowed to move about in Konoha under strict supervision. Unexpectedly, the memorial site seemed to be his favorite place. He would be caught staring at the stone for hours everyday, and wouldn't really care about anything else aside from doing his personal D-ranked missions as part of his punishment, or going back to his solitary confinement at the newly built quarters on what was formerly the ruins of Uchiha's compound.

Until one day, when the young blond man's search for the raven-haired Uchiha on one evening led him to that place.

" _What are you doing here, Sasuke?" he asked the almost catatonic young man who sat quietly on the ground, his empty look directed at the cenotaph in front of him._

 _Silence._ _Obsidian blank eyes stared unseeingly straight ahead._

" _I wanted to see how you are doing these days. Is everything alright?" The stupid question blurted from his mouth before he could stop it._

 _He_ _had wanted to smack his head on that cenotaph. Of course nothing was alright with Sasuke! After a few failed suicide attempts, he was so broken mentally and emotionally that he didn't even have the will to live anymore. In fact, Naruto secretly believed that the last Uchiha would appreciate anyone who would put him out of his misery. Not that he would permit anyone to harm his friend, though. As the Hokage, he had made it his decree that Sasuke was to be left alone, and that he was the only one with rights to make decisions on him, all at his absolute discretion._

 _Most of the shinobi and villagers had accepted his direct order, although reluctantly._ _However, he had even gone so far as to place linked blood seals on both of them so that he could monitor the Uchiha's condition all the time, taking into consideration several botched assassination attempts by renegades from the disbanded Ne and foreign enemies._

 _Exasperated,_ _he turned to face his silent companion, "Why do you keep watching the stone? There's no point looking at something that brings nothing but more pain to us. Stop punishing yourself like this, Sasuke!"_

 _He had expected another_ _silence; the emotionless Uchiha had barely uttered any words since he had begun his sentence. His common reactions would include nod, shrug or simply nothing at all._

 _Therefore he couldn't_ _really contain his surprise when he heard a raspy voice answered him, words coming out slowly from a mouth who didn't speak for a long time, "It… lacks… one name."_

 _Naruto's eyes widened in shock_ _when he finally grasped the meaning of his words. A part of him was happy that Sasuke had started talking to him, even though it comprised four mere words, but he was embarrassed a little that he hadn't thought about it earlier. Not many people understood Uchiha Itachi's missions and actions; anyone who ever did was mostly dead. He had been digging into all the scrolls and records available, and had finally found the top-level information on the shinobi. To be blunt, Sasuke's older brother was among those who had contributed more to Konoha than half of the shinobi population combined. Itachi's name deserved to be carved there and nothing would stop him from granting Sasuke that small wish._

 _He_ _walked in front of the broken shinobi, put both hands on each of his shoulders, and said softly, as if consoling a child, "He's truly a hero of Konoha. I'll include Itachi's name here. Right away. Then I'll make an announcement on it. Would that make you happy?"_

 _For the first time in six months, a somewhat contented expression appeared on the Uchiha's face._ _"Hai… Thank you."_

" _I understand now… why Kakashi always came here," the raven-haired man continued huskily, an almost painful emotion could be seen in his dark eyes._

"…  _Why?" Naruto knew that he was in denial, but he wanted Sasuke to finish what he_ _thought he would say._

" _Our failures… keep our pain alive. So that we'll never feel empty inside. So that we don't repeat the same mistakes again. So that we can continue protecting those that we must protect..._ "

 _Those words struck_ _so true to his heart that he was incapable of speech for a while. Kakashi-sensei's typical excuse for his chronic tardiness – that he often got lost in the road of life while in reality he was at the memorial site, now held a deeper meaning than just a pathetic tendency. Suddenly, he understood Sasuke's reason for visiting that site. If he blamed himself for not being able to save those he wanted to protect, Sasuke blamed himself more for causing their deaths, regardless of the fact that it had happened beyond his control. In a way, he suffered more than Naruto, regretting with every bit of whatever was left of his soul for what he had done._

" _I know_ _what you mean," he said empathetically. He moved a little to stand next to his friend, eyes sifted on the stone with a new light. "I feel the same too."_

 _They had stayed there until dark before the Hokage informed Sasuke that his chakra-binds_ _were to be removed and that he would start his C-rank missions on the next day._

" _Next time, I'll accompany you_ _there. Is it okay for you?" he asked him on their way back to Konoha proper afterwards. Only a small nod confirmed his request, but to him it was already a good start on his companion's recovery._

From that day, it had become a routine for both of them to pay their respect there.

A small shift in the air broke him from his reverie. He knew that somebody was approaching that place, but he chose to ignore that person and continued his staring contest with the cenotaph.

Guided by the pale moonlight, his excellent eyes trailed down the list, looking for familiar names for the last time. Umino Iruka, Akimichi Chouji, Might Guy, Rock Lee, Aburame Shino, Hyuga Hinata… and a few others that he might have encountered previously. His mind suddenly traced back to one person.

"Hinata-chan…"

As usual, his brilliant sapphires flashed slightly, his mind caught in an endless memory loop of her untimely death ten months ago. Unlike the others who mostly had fallen during Konoha's war with Akatsuki and Uchiha Madara, Hinata died on an S-rank espionage mission, due to her team's encounter with a group of mysterious Sora-nin on their way back to Konoha. Realizing the fact that vital information could save an entire country, she had ordered her teammates to report to the Hokage immediately while she tried to hold them off. It had taken them an hour and half at full speed to reach the Konoha's border tower before teleporting themselves to the Hokage office using the reverse summoning seals set up by the Hokage for such extreme case of emergency.

Upon receiving the news, the young Hokage was livid. It was rare for a group of nin from different country to ambush another team on a mission, unless they wanted to steal the same information, which was safely received by him from her teammates. Barking orders to his loyal guards to get Sakura to the Hokage office, Naruto had emerged instantly at the border of Konohagakure and Amegakure using a summoned toad's space and time transportation ability to retrieve the Hyuga.

A few minutes of near light-speed search had brought him to the battle-ravaged area. With cold precision, he had made short work of the rest of Sora-nin, which he assumed were a special task-force equivalent to Konoha's ANBU. The said kunoichi was gravely injured, mostly at the backside due to her Byakugan's blind spot where she was vulnerable to their aerial attacks.

Although it took less than ten minutes to reemerge at his office, it was too late to save her. She had lost too much blood and Sakura's post-mortem had confirmed that there were traces of poison in her bloodstream. It was miracle itself that she could hold her ground for that long while sustaining such injuries, especially while fighting enemies of the same level. As much as he had wanted revenge, instigating war with the Sky Country was out of the question. He couldn't really blame Soragakure for that matter since such modus operandi was acceptable in ninja world, and vice versa if he decided to turn the tables on them.

But he was the one who had assigned her ANBU team on the mission… albeit reluctantly. A successful mission that had claimed the one he was beginning to know and love.

A Hokage sent his subordinates to their death everyday. And he had sent his love to her early death as well. The engraving of her name on that cenotaph indicated another testament to his loss.

"I'm sorry, Hinata-chan. I'm leaving with Sasuke for that mission tonight. It's very dangerous, but I promise that I'll return, once completed. I know that you'll always watch for us, then."

"I'd better leave right now. Sayonara, Hinata," as soon as he had said that, he turned around to see Sabaku no Gaara walked calmly to his side.

"Gaara…"

The stoic Kazekage raised an imaginary brow at him, "Paying your last respect to the fallen? Your people are waiting for you there now, you know…"

Naruto had to admit that he had lost track of time a little. Sheepishly, he rubbed his unruly blond hair and replied, "Hey, give me a break! Can't you see that I'm saying goodbye to everyone here?" He gave the Kazekage an odd expression, "By the way, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be there too?"

His red-haired counterpart seemed to consider his question for a few moments before he said seriously, "I've been running away from your guards and my escort."

Naruto couldn't resist rolling his eyes at that remark. "Don't say something like that with such a serious face. It's kinda creepy."

"It's true. I wanted be alone for a while."

"Really? I bet you've led them a merry chase all around Konoha. Although with Neji and Kiba I'm pretty sure that they are on their way here."

He had barely finished the sentence when three dark figures landed smoothly near them. Two of them were wearing the Konoha ANBU standard uniform together with their porcelain animal masks. A ninjaken was strapped to each of their back. The other man wore a dark costume with some curious painting on his face.

The tallest one in the middle started the conversation first, "Hokage-sama…" Then he turned abruptly to face the Kazekage and said in exasperation, "Gaara! Why did you simply disappear on us?"

"Kankuro, there's no need for that attitude. I just wanted to be alone for a while," Gaara replied.

"But you make me worried. You could at least inform me first before pulling stunt like that!" Kankuro said irritably. The Kazekage's face remained impassive, ignoring the situation that he was being admonished like some petulant child in front of another kage and his subordinates.

"Hey hey, calm down there. Don't be such a jerk, Kankuro. It's no big deal. Give your little brother here a break," the Hokage said, amused at the man's overprotective nature. Kankuro snorted at that, but his rigid stance had relaxed a little.

"Actually, we've been tracking him down for almost two hours," the one with dog-mask added. He seemed a little annoyed, but his voice retained the respectful tone. His long-haired partner acquiesced to this claim by nodding stiffly.

The blond Hokage sweatdropped a little. It was impossible to believe that Gaara had truly led them a merry dance around Konoha. But he understood Gaara's need to get away from his brother's constant watch, for Kami's sake he was the Kazekage! He obviously could take care of himself. Maybe he did that intentionally, just to annoy Kankuro. Naruto's mischievous mind couldn't resist imagining a chibi Gaara sticking his tongue out at his three babysitters before he vanished in a swirl of sand, taunting and popping at different places leaving those furious pursuers eating his dust. That thought made him giggle like an idiot before he could stop himself, eight pairs of eyes watched him curiously.

"Aheheheh. Is there something wrong?" he asked stupidly.

The ANBU with eagle-mask eyed him with concern, "Are you alright, Hokage-sama?" Suddenly, all of their attention was directed at him. He tried to make a straight face, feeling a little embarrassed at his own idiosyncrasies. "I'm absolutely fine."

"Yeah, sure…" an almost sarcastic remark came from the dog-mask ANBU.

"Kiba! There's no way to speak to the Hokage like that!" His companion chastised him. "Our apologies, Naruto…"

The said Hokage waved the apology away, his grin contagious, "Heh, don't bother, Neji. Kiba is just acting like himself. Since everything is fine, let's take our leave now."

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

Sakura had an odd feeling that someone was watching her every move since she left the Hokage tower. Although she was moving at top speed to reach their rally point, the stalker seemed to follow her with relative ease while masking his chakra to almost non-existence. Something that was very difficult to accomplish unless you was an elite shinobi with assassination training. However, she couldn't detect any malice intention from the person who was currently tailing her; it was more likely that that person was allowing himself to be recognized.

After a few minutes, she decided to stop at a clearing, waiting for that person to show himself.

"Sakura…" a quiet voice called her name. She looked up to see her former teammate jump from a branch to land gracefully in front of her. Bathed by the moonlight, Uchiha Sasuke looked so handsome and godly that her heartbeat sped up a little. Even after all these years, she couldn't help but fall for him. Despite his previous betrayal, she had believed that there was still goodness in him; that one day he would return to Konoha and Team 7 could be whole again. Those wishes had come true, but her love remained unrequited.

'Get a grip on yourself, Sakura! You're not the stupid fan girl anymore, so stop embarrassing yourself in front of him!' Her inner Sakura shouted disapprovingly.

"Is there anything I can help you with, Sasuke?" She asked him in a formal tone, although she was starting to get a little nervous from the strange look he was giving her.

The last surviving Uchiha studied the beautiful kunoichi silently. His mind flashed back to the night of his defection from Konoha seven years ago, where he had received her confession of undying love and promise to do anything to make him happy, as long as he didn't leave her. He had assumed that it was a silly fan-girl confession, and didn't really think about it. At that time he was so obsessed in getting stronger that he was willing to sell his soul to Orochimaru. Relationships would create bonds and made him feel complacent, thus he had severed those ties with them previously.

But she was the only one besides Naruto who had believed in him, that he deserved another chance to start over; despite the fact that he had tried to kill them and annihilate Konoha. She had helped a lot during his recuperating period mentally and physically, and for that alone she deserved his appreciation.

"Sasuke…?" the Kunoichi repeated his name cautiously; her posture looked very uncomfortable at the moment.

"I… well, never mind then…" he said a little awkwardly. He turned his back to her and started moving on his way. 'Stupid Naruto, giving me stupid instruction…'

"Sasuke, wait…!" Her voice stopped him from his movement.

"Are you alright? I mean… well, I just wanna make sure that everything is okay…" She said uncertainly. "Please take care of yourself and Naruto. This should help a little in your journey," She took a small medical kit from her backpack and passed it to him. "Actually, I wanted to give it to you later, but since you're here, please accept it."

Sasuke looked at her gift curiously before he took it from her, "Soldier pills?" he asked.

"A special type of soldier pills. It restores your chakra while boosting your energy level and healing most wounds immediately, as long as they are not fatal," the established medic-nin informed him.

"… I'll keep this," he kept the kit on his small sling beg and continued on his way, leaving the pink-haired kunoichi flabbergasted at his rudeness. Instantly, he could feel anger radiating from Sakura. He was expecting a shout, or maybe an attack, but he didn't expect her anger to stifle so quickly, to be replaced with a depressing sadness. He had hurt her feelings, he knew that he was being an ass, but now he couldn't restrain the sudden urge to comfort her.

"You must hate me so much, right…? But at least you could say thank you…" she said, ignoring the stabbing feelings in her heart. It had always been like this. He didn't really talk unnecessarily to other people except Naruto, and they had barely spoken to each other unless it was mission-related or when he needed any medical treatment from her. Somehow she got the certain feelings that he was avoiding her all this time, but she didn't really understand why. Even Naruto had once asked in concern whether Sasuke was treating her coldly, but she had denied with a smile, saying that there's nothing to worry about. And now, he had approached her only to leave without saying anything. His strange attitude had made her confused and hurt beyond reason.

Her painful whisper blocked him from his thoughts. From the branch, his sharingan eyes looked at her face, unshed tears pooled in her beautiful green orbs. The stoic Uchiha tried to remain calm and collected, although he was failing wretchedly. In actuality, he was afraid of admitting his weakness. He wanted everyone to see him as the emotionless, detached and arrogant Uchiha, but just like Naruto, Sakura cared enough about him to overlook his false barriers. He was afraid of his own acceptance of her, and now she was accusing him, thinking that he hated her?

'I'm so stupid… believing that he might appreciate whatever I've done for him…' she thought emotionlessly, welcoming the numbing feeling that was spreading all over her. Sluggishly, she moved forward, her body tried to follow the command from the inner Sakura to focus on her task instead of wallowing in self-pity. 'I should be there as soon as possible… Better leave while I still have some dignity intact…'

Abruptly, a swift movement from behind her triggered all her ninja senses; her hands automatically pulled a kunai to prepare for any possible attack. Although she was currently as strong as Tsunade, maybe stronger, she couldn't really compete with the speed of her assailant. He had forced the weapons out of her hands almost as quickly as he trapped both of her hands to her side. Stunned as she was, she couldn't begin to comprehend what was happening until she felt his arms wrap around her body and his firm torso press against her back…

Her heart suddenly beat faster as she struggled to get free to save herself from whatever humiliation he planned on her. But her futile efforts were smothered easily by him, as his arms tightened firmly to imprison her body close to him.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry for hurting you. I truly didn't mean that," he said softly, his mouth was so near to her sensitive ear that she blushed slightly. "I… you… never think that I hate you. In fact…" his words seemed to get stuck in his mouth, and he could feel his cheeks turning pink with embarrassment. He knew that he was a man of a few words, but even right then he didn't stutter like this.

'I surely want to beat the crap out of the Hokage one of these days…'

Her little movement made him aware of the kunoichi in his embrace. She was flushing from head to toe; her body had become less rigid. He found himself admiring her scent and the feel of her soft long hair against his shoulder. A sudden realization struck him.

'I like holding her like this.'

"Sasuke… please release me. We… need to be there right now…" her trembling voice just added more to her allure. She was truly beautiful, he noted. So many men fawned for her attention, but he was yet to see her socialize with any of them aside from her immediate friends. Why? Was it because of him?

That thought sent an almost content feeling to his heart.

"Sakura… thank you. Wait for our return," he pulled her body closer to him one last time before disappeared completely in the darkness.

The stunned kunoichi stayed there for a minute, her body missing the warmth that radiated from him just now. A bigger part of her fuzzy mind began to process his unusual actions and words, while another small part wondered of how a cold bastard like him could exude such warmth.

A happy smile formed on her features.

"Don't worry. I'll always wait, Sasuke-kun…" Later she had to double up her speed to catch up with him.

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

By extending his sense, Naruto could feel a few ANBU teams moving inconspicuously around the area, doing their job dutifully.

"It's almost time," the Hokage said calmly to everyone who was present at the Valley of the End. He looked at the people gathered around him with a mixture of pride, happiness, and sadness. These people were his most precious and trustworthy friends, and he couldn't help but feel a little reluctant to leave them. However, for the sake of continual peace, he was willing to pay the price for it, even at the cost of his life.

He had talked to a few of them upon arrival; namely Shikamaru, Ino, Sai and Tenten. They were among those who had arrived earlier to ensure that everything went according to plan. He removed his vest and coat, but retained his gear, black undershirt and pants. Sasuke remained in his attire.

"So… this is goodbye then," a dark-haired chuunin said with a grin, his hand extended.

The Hokage took the offered hand and shook it vigorously, grinned widely in return. "Yeah…"

"Please send my regards to that old man, okay? Tell him that I'll become the next Hokage."

"Hahaha, sure! But Konohamaru, you'll have to prove yourself first, and then I'll appoint you when the time is right. Deal?"

"Deal! But don't forget to come back here, Naruto nii-san," Konohamaru said, shaking that hand one more time before releasing it. Other people came forward; each took their turn to wish him and Sasuke goodbye.

"Kick his ass, Sasuke," Kiba said to his commander, who acknowledged that remark with a smirk.

"Please be careful, Hokage-sama, Sasuke." They nodded to the Hyuga.

"It's an honor to serve you. Konoha needs its Hokage. Please return safely," one of the Jonin said.

"It would be troublesome if you didn't come back…"

Naruto twitched a little at the word 'troublesome'. Shikamaru hadn't use the word for a long time, not since Chouji's death. Since then, the once lazy jonin took everything seriously, an attitude that recently made him as the head of cryptology and research unit.

"Don't worry. Everything will be alright," he said.

"We'll make sure that everything is fine here."

"May the Will of Fire burn brightly in you."

"Kill him and return to us," his former captain, Yamato, said.

"That's the plan," he replied determinedly to the mokuton user.

"Goodbye, Naruto, Sasuke. Please take care, both of you," Sakura gave a brief hug to Naruto, who hugged her back, and then she turned to face Sasuke, a light blush on her cheeks, "Please return soon…"

The Uchiha nodded quietly at her, an almost-smile on his lips, "We will." Then he turned and directed his glare at the Hokage beside him, who was smirking smugly at their awkwardness.

Naruto smiled slyly at them. 'Looks like something had happened between these two. Hehe, glad that the bastard took my cue.'

"Hokage-sama…" the Kazekage, who was standing next to his brother, walked calmly to him. The Hokage moved forward a little, meeting his friend halfway in the middle of the clearing. Kankuro, Sasuke and Sakura remained at their respective place, while the others formed a semicircle around them, watching respectfully as the two prominent leaders of Konoha and Suna exchanged their goodbyes.

"Well, I hope everything goes as planned," Naruto said, his tone a little serious than usual. He continued, "We'll get the peace that all of us crave, Kazekage-sama. I'll make sure of it."

"I'll hold it to your promise, Naruto, and I'll hold mine," the red-haired Kazekage answered solemnly. "As long as this world exists, Konoha and Suna are forever allies. Don't worry, nobody knows that the Hokage is not around except those that you have authorized to know."

"Excellent. Please send my regards to Temari. Hope she's alright there."

"I will. She's doing fine." Suppressing an amused expression, he said, "But she truly hates the paperwork I assign her to help with."

"Geez, who loves paperwork?" The Hokage said good-naturedly. After a firm handshaking, they walked to the ground where Naruto had prepared earlier for his sealing ritual.

"Come on, let's do it now," he said as he walked onto the center of circle-like array of seals that he had drawn previously. He checked for the last time to ensure that every formula was placed correctly. One mistake could be fatal. Sasuke followed suit, standing right next to him. He did several hand seals and a golden translucent barrier formed around them, engulfing the circle completely. Those who were presence stared in awe at that spectacular event. Finally, the Hokage activated the jutsu, releasing a tremendous amount of chakra from his body. The seals glowed brightly, consuming its way through the patterns from the center of the circle to its outside parameter.

A second later, both of them disappeared in a blinding golden flash.

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

Naruto felt like he was in a limbo, maybe worse. He couldn't think, sense, feel or move anything at all. Hell, he didn't even know who he was, his purpose and how he could be there in the first place. It was a total void. Suddenly, a flash of golden light consumed him, and everything came back to normal. Quickly, he braced himself for whatever impact coming from his arrival. Nothing.

Good. It seemed like the jutsu worked perfectly. He could feel Sasuke's presence next to him, and was glad that he had tagged along safely, except for the slight disorientation that he also felt at the moment. Suddenly, a tense atmosphere around them triggered his senses to full alertness.

The blond opened his eyes to notice two things. One, they had arrived in broad daylight in the middle of nowhere and two –

That middle of nowhere was a battlefield, where he and his companion were stuck right at the center of it.

"Uh uh… Crap."

**To be continued…**


	3. Flight from the dark

**o…oOOo…o**

Naruto quickly prepared himself when the golden vortex enveloping them dissipated completely, leaving he and Sasuke clearly exposed to everyone in the vicinity.

"Hn… crap indeed. Leave it to you to dump us in a situation like this," Sasuke said casually, though there was hint of amusement mixed with the usual annoyance in his tone. He didn't look surprised or alarmed at all that they had landed in the middle of a battlefield. In fact, he looked like he had expected it to happen.

And that was why he had taken a precautionary measure just a few seconds earlier. Once he had regained his senses and whatever discomfort caused by the time-traveling gone, his Sharingan eyes quickly took stock of the situation. Nimble fingers flashed through a series of seals as his foot dug into the ground, and in the midst of shock and confusion, his targets froze as the jutsu hit them and took effect. Then, as the haze cleared, Sasuke swiftly turned, catching the eyes of another group of ninja with his before moving on, crimson irises now black again.

The usually stoic man smirked mockingly when he saw Naruto giving him a dirty look, but soon raised one eyebrow curiously as he noticed the absence of whisker marks on his friend's face. Not only that, the blond's features suddenly looked more pronounced, as if he had gained a few years of age in a matter of seconds.

'Got some creative plan already?' he wondered as he glimpsed at their immediate surroundings and the mostly  _stunned_  potential enemies. His smirk widened a little in understanding. "Well, it's good to see that we don't land in the ladies' hot spring or something this time around. I'd rather be called a spy or a killer than a pervert, you know."

"Oh, just shut your trap. At least I'm pretty sure  _right now_  that we've arrived somewhere in the past," Naruto retorted half-heartedly, he couldn't help but recall a few of the countless failed attempts in their early experiments.

Due to certain miscalculations on his part, or maybe that fate simply wanted to make his life miserable, they tended to get dumped in the weirdest places. One such occasion had almost started a war between Suna and Konoha, when he and Sasuke suddenly appeared in a conference room during a council meeting, putting both of them in a very difficult situation.

It seemed that a few of the more aggressive and snobbish Suna council members had claimed that he and Sasuke had been caught red-handed in the barrier jutsu set up to trap intruders and spies, although Naruto had rather disdainfully countered that no barrier could stop him were he trying to infiltrate a place, and that it was ridiculous for a Hokage to spy on his allies in such an underhanded way.

It took another two hours of an ad hoc meeting to convince the council members that Hi no Kuni was neither planning to breach their peaceful alliance nor trying to initiate hostility between the two nations. Thankfully, Gaara and Kankuro had been there to save their butts – and Konoha, since the treaty was hanging precariously in the balance – but he had to confide to them on his suspicious action personally afterwards.

The outcome wasn't so bad actually. It had brought the Kazekage, and Kankuro by default, in on Naruto's crazy plan and they had been very helpful.

There was one time when both of them had burst into the ladies' hot spring in Konoha, and again, no thanks to a certain pink-haired kunoichi, Naruto found himself in hot water.

"And you just sound like a pervert in denial. I remember someone who got a nosebleed staring at a half-naked Sakura. How come she got all shy and blushing and didn't say one word about you seeing her in all her glory, but I almost got pummeled to death for doing the same thing?" he shuddered at the traumatic mental images of an enraged Sakura punching the living daylights out of him. Pushing that scary thought aside, he glanced around at their immediate surroundings. His time-travel jutsu had dispatched them to a desolate and rough terrain area, with a few sparse trees shading the land, and a low range of rocky hills in the distance.

'Tsuchi no Kuni… Looks like we're in their territory now.'

Sasuke opened his mouth to correct Naruto that he  _did_  have the nosebleed, but only  _after_  they had escaped the hot spring area, not before. However he simply decided that it wasn't worth it; Naruto would probably just come up with another stupid and annoying comment, which later would make him look foolish too. Heaven forbid if he would ever tarnish his Uchiha pride and self-control by something as trivial as having stupid nosebleed because of some half-naked female, no matter how gorgeous she was in that skimpy two pieces bathing suit. Shaking off the unhealthy direction of his thoughts, he quickly amended, well, at least never in public.

Involuntarily, he recalled that some of the females there were totally naked, but strangely they didn't affect him as much. And most of them were blushing and spluttering too. A few even went as far as trying to invite both of the confused and surprised visitors to join them, but before Naruto could explain anything, Sakura was screaming bloody murder and already trying to kill the poor blond.

He was contemplating why Naruto often let himself get beaten up by Sakura when an enemy's forced movement suddenly snapped him to attention. Hell, here they were wedged between two clashing parties in a combat zone and he was thinking about a hot spring incident, of all things?

But Naruto's moronic nature was so contagious that he couldn't resist adding his own two cents.

"Whatever… But it wasn't me who aggravated the ladies by acting stupid. You should thank me for dragging your sorry ass out of that place before she castrated you," the dark-haired man said offhandedly, ignoring Naruto's protest at that remark.

"Hey, at least it wasn't me frozen like a statue in that damn hot water, you closet pervert! You're lucky that she likes you so much, or maybe she just loves using me as her punching bag. You sure took your sweet time rescuing me, by the way."

The only reply for his whining was a short 'hn' from Sasuke, who didn't even bother trying to deny those accusations.

The blond man turned his head towards his companion on his left and spoke somewhat awkwardly, "Heh, I guess we can always save that topic for later." Suddenly his tone changed a little, exuding dangerous vibes when he saw most Iwa-nin around them struggling to break free from Sasuke's paralysis technique, "Right now, let's get busy."

Sasuke agreed silently, his left hand rose to shield his face from the hot wind gusting suddenly past them. He could see Naruto doing the same from his peripheral vision before returning his focus on the shinobi around them. It was easy to determine their ninja village from the hitai-ate or uniforms worn by those shinobi. There were at least twenty living Iwa-nin scattering about in various positions approximately fifteen meters from his left side, but Sasuke was pretty certain that only fourteen were real. The rest could be tsuchi bunshin, if the duplicate appearances were of any indication. This was shortly confirmed when six clones popped out of existence one by one due to lack of control from three of the paralyzed users.

Farther on his and Naruto's right, there was no mistaking four Konoha ANBU in their standard uniforms and stance, none of them that he had ever met before. His keen eyes detected that the battle vests were of an old design; the forces under his command had been issued with better and improved ones more than a year ago.

Secretly he was glad of his choice of attire right now, which he usually wore whenever he wasn't in his ANBU outfit. It looked almost like the one he had worn when he was in Orochimaru's lair, but the purple rope on his waist had been replaced with an obi of the same color over the blue cloth which was now stitched neatly to cover his abdomen, and he had started wearing a black undershirt beneath his yukata quite some time ago. In a way, he was glad that it had reduced the unwanted stares from the female population at his previously open torso. He still had his ANBU fingerless gloves, and his kusanagi was strapped firmly within hand's reach at the back of his waist.

The fact that he could recognize all of his subordinates back then proved that Naruto had made it this time, but they still needed some confirmation. If only the idiot knew how to land at a less crowded place…

They weren't physically crippled like the Iwa-nin, but Sasuke had immediately caught them in his non-harming genjutsu as soon as he had sensed them, mostly to give Naruto and him some time to plan on their next move. One lay unmoving on the ground, seeming heavily wounded, while another knelt down beside him, both sporting cracked masks. Almost all of them were injured at one point. Although he couldn't really see their expression beneath the porcelain masks, he was aware that three of them were observing Naruto intently, surprise and acknowledgement obvious in their tired but maintained composure.

' _Good. Focus on him. Don't really care about me here. Simply assume that I'm an ally... and we'll make sure that everything is alright.'_

He surveyed the landscape. There were six mutilated bodies on the battle-ravaged ground, none of their outfits or visible hitai-ate resembling any of Konoha standard issues. A part of him felt relieved somehow. No matter how emotionless a shinobi could be, watching a comrade die was always a devastating experience. He quickly looked for any signs of planted explosives, and was glad to find a few which were placed strategically on the battleground. The trail of soil particles where the bombs and exploding makibishi were hidden was still fresh and quite easy to point out, and he wouldn't be surprised if those ninja had emerged from underground themselves.

"From the look of things, it seemed that the four ANBU had engaged earlier with jounin teams, probably two standard 4-man squads. The two survivors over there," Sasuke's head tilted to their direction, where two injured Iwa-nin trapped in squatting position near one of the corpses, "they might have sent some beacon signal for reinforcement."

"Three fresh elite squads, huh? It seemed that the Black Ops there could hold their ground pretty well, but not for long. Good thing we arrive here, too," Naruto concluded, noting the masks and uniforms worn by the Iwa-nin. They looked a little bit similar with the standard grey and black Konoha ANBU's, but with lighter shades and different designs.

"And blow up our own mission before it even gets started? What is it about being inconspicuous? Dobe, I hope you realize that more will turn up sooner or later… our entrance here was flashy enough."

"Geez, no need to keep pointing that out. There's some changes in plan, we'll talk about it later. Teme, release them whenever you're ready, but maintain that thing on our guys. I want some information."

"Hn, whatever. Just don't screw up."

Naruto grinned. "Heh, don't steal my line."

Sasuke smirked, glad that Naruto had decided to get serious rather than continue their usual back and forth barbs. He shifted his open-toed sandal on the rough ground, cutting off the lightning chakra that he had surged constantly in a very small amount at his feet to supply a cobweb-like paralyzing jutsu, which could cover an applicable surface up to twenty meters in radius. It was inspired from the Kanashibari no Jutsu he had learned in ANBU, but he didn't really have to move to strike any of the opponents' nervous system in order to make it work. Any contact from the jutsu would automatically paralyze the appendage, especially the legs. It had proven to be very useful for quick kills or when fighting a lot of opponents at a time, especially when they were surrounding him at a close range.

Enemies trapped within his Suraikou range would usually suffer temporary muscular stun, and generally lose their focus and self-control due to the numbing effects generated by the lightning threads as long as he willed it, which would give him or comrades ample time to attack and execute other techniques, or in their case right now, observing and analyzing their new environment.

Due to the massive amount of chakra required to unleash and control that jutsu, he seldom used it except in necessary situations. Apart from today's occurrence, those had only happened when he worked alone or was partnered with Silent Hunter, better known as Hyuuga Neji.

Back then, he had appointed the Byakugan genius as his Acting Commander upon his leaves, with Shikamaru, Yamato and Sai as his advisors. Personally, he knew that there was no better person for the job. The well-mannered, but deadly shinobi was one of the most successful ANBU captains Konoha had ever produced, as well as the most likely candidate to lead the Hyuuga clan. Although Sasuke preferred solo missions above all else, lately Neji had become his constant partner on most difficult and top-rated missions assigned by Naruto. Strangely, he had to admit that they worked efficiently together, despite the fact that some people had questioned the wisdom of putting an Uchiha and a Hyuuga on a two-man team.

To him, the answer was easy. ANBU followed direct orders from the Hokage, ANBU wore physical and emotional masks for valid reasons and naturally, he outranked Neji, so there was no issue of who should be in command. Of course, he didn't add that they had also become friends.

But if anyone had ever asked the Hokage of it, his stupid friend would brazenly attribute their outstanding performances to them having superiority complexes and being stuck-up bastard misfits who could never accept being inferior to anyone…

Neji might be quiet and arrogant, but just like most Hyuuga, his polite nature masked those characteristics well. Sasuke was pretty sure that ninety percents of that Naruto's  _flattering_ remarks were directed at him personally, and he absolutely didn't care.

Sasuke quietly observed the ANBU team making a protective stand around their injured teammate, all alert and ready to act at any moment. Despite them being under his genjutsu, it was subtle and harmless enough that they wouldn't even notice it, well, at least until it was released. He had simply projected a little thought into their minds, strengthening the notion that their losing battle had been interrupted by Konoha-nin who were on mission. He was careful enough to distract their attention from the details of his banter with Naruto, instead he had instilled hope and relief into their thinking. However, being the ANBU commander himself, Sasuke knew how a shinobi's mind worked, that they would never let their guards down. But in life-threatening situation, regardless of what inhuman training one had undergone to become an emotionless killing machine, he understood the human need for security and survival.

Naturally, he just let their mind decide what they perceived as reality, with a little prodding from him, of course. For whatever reason, they had seen Naruto as their savior, which had made Sasuke's job that much easier.

Sometimes, to make it even more effective, he'd also use genjutsu simultaneously with the cobweb ninjutsu on his targets as a failsafe, especially when fighting high-level opponents who might have wind-nature affiliation that would enable them to negate his lightning chakra by emitting their own wind chakra from their body, or any unknown means that would help them to break free. So far, no enemies he had faced could escape that deadly combo.

And he had never used it on allies except with two people. Neji had received a taste of it during an impromptu sparring session once, when they were having a petty disagreement after submitting their first S-class mission report. A nice way of putting it would be to say that raging adrenaline had catalyzed the small miscommunication into a full-blown fight and both of them couldn't resist showing off their coolest techniques just to prove their points. He had executed the jutsu in a timely finishing attack to trap the Hyuuga, and then rendered him unconscious by a blow to the pressure points at the back of his head. Sasuke had emerged victorious, but not before his body sustained a few blocked chakra pathways and some internal bleeding, courtesy of Neji's new Eight Trigrams techniques.

Although he didn't really go all out on him, the Jyuken user definitely knew how to come really close to doing permanent damage without quite going over the edge. Sasuke had been sore and irritable for the rest of the week. Their mutual respect and understanding of each other's skills and strengths had slowly but surely formed their friendship afterwards.

With a little persuasion from a blond moron and a pink-haired kunoichi they knew – somehow the two had conveniently chosen that time for a trip to the ANBU training ground and had arrived right after Sasuke and Neji had finished trying to kill each other. Later, after they had fully recovered, Naruto had vowed to assign a month of D-class missions with half the pay to the two, whom he referred to as "brain-dead" and "childish ANBU." Sasuke had simply smirked and dismissed it as an empty threat, but Neji had the grace to sound a little embarrassed. Sakura, however, had threatened to remove their abilities to produce children if she  _ever_  found them almost fatally injured because of some stupid fight again.

Nobody knew, but they had actually gone pale a little behind those masks.

For the days to come, he and Neji had established a silent agreement during their subsequently occasional stress relieving hours; no killing each other unless absolutely necessary.

Sasuke glanced imperceptibly at his blond counterpart.

If there was anyone who could escape his lethal combination technique effortlessly, Naruto was that person, since he was such a formidable wind-user, and thanks to Itachi's little gift and Naruto's own hard-work, seemed to have a very high resistance, if not immune to  _any_  form of genjutsu. The only consolation to him in their eternal rivalry was that Naruto sucked at performing genjutsu, but even then the unpredictable Hokage had been training hard in that department.

One of the reasons why it was really hard to beat Naruto in their spars nowadays… but there were always other options, right?

'Now let's see whether we've arrived at the right place or not,' the dark-haired man thought as his mind centered on more important matters.

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

Naruto watched calmly as his enemies – at least, his instincts told him they were enemies – struggled to regain their composure after being freed from Sasuke's jutsu.

He half-expected them to charge Sasuke and him immediately, now that they were on their feet again, but wasn't really surprised when they jumped back considerably, quickly surrounding both of them in a triangular attack formation, with four men along each side. He didn't really have to look at their eyes, which were barely visible from the holes on their porcelain masks, to know that they were greatly disturbed by his presence. Ironically, he didn't even do anything after their sudden arrival except for a quick sealing to adjust his physical appearances; it was Sasuke who took control of the whole situation.

And Sasuke had done his part exceptionally well. His skills in the mind technique were so good that none of the Iwa-nin detected that the Konoha ANBU team had been placed under a genjutsu. However, such things didn't really extend beyond the intended recipients. Once the mind-prodding link had been broken, the ANBU members would likely take notice of what had actually happened, and more troubles might ensue. Naruto didn't want that to happen right now, so he hoped that Sasuke had enough chakra to maintain it. At least, until all of them were safely out of the country.

He glanced at the other two Iwa jounin who still hadn't budged, too injured or weak to take part in the imminent fight.

They looked terrified, as if he was a demon from hell itself… which was almost technically true. If only they knew what he harbored inside his body…

But they didn't. There was only one explanation for such recognition and utter fear radiated from their postures. It was proof of their assumption about who he was or, to be precise, someone else who looked exactly like him.

"Blond hair, blue eyes. And that face…" one of the men in front of him started. He paused, swallowed hard, and then continued rather forcefully, "Are you, by any chance, the Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou?"

Naruto didn't answer immediately; instead he focused his senses at his feet. He could feel very subtle underground movements from the distance. They were too distinctive and too conspicuous, at least in his opinion, to be considered the natural movement of the earth. Besides, those movements were made at a gradual, but determined speed towards their direction. He almost smirked. There were other Iwa-nin, probably another group of elite squad coming their way, and the man in front of him was obviously stalling for some time as well as trying to confirm his identity. Well, two can play at the game…

He noticed a slight movement to his left. No doubt Sasuke had caught on as well. Their time was running out. Not because of the possibilities of being outnumbered – hell, he could simply kill all of them before they could even blink an eye – but just as Sasuke had pointed out, the fewer people who knew of their existence, the better their chances were to find Madara and kill him. The only reasons he didn't do it was because he abhorred unnecessary killings and he needed to know whether they had arrived at the right timeframe or not

For that purpose, he required these people to testify, and he wanted it fast. It seemed that the first puzzle had been solved. Wait, not quite. Recognizing him as his father wasn't enough. Even in his own time, many foreigners from other countries still mistook him as the legendary Yondaime Hokage. He needed them to reveal more, something as easy as who was the current Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. On second thought, it'd be easier if they just got out of here and try to get the information somewhere else. Any tavern in a small town would be able to provide him with everything he needed; plus, a friendly tavern sounded real nice at the moment.

He turned his face unhurriedly toward the speaker, unperturbed at all by the killing intents gathering slowly around him.

"And what if I am?" he said quietly, but nobody could disregard the underlying steel in his voice. The men around him stiffened, more weapons suddenly being drawn out of nowhere. He exchanged quick glances with Sasuke, who then suddenly vanished from his spot and appeared near the injured Konoha team. If anyone was surprised by such display of speed, they did well to hide it.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Sasuke communicated in a series of complex ANBU codes with them, who replied cautiously in return. The whole conversation itself was quick and concise, but Sasuke could be very convincing when he wanted to, especially when there was genjutsu involved. A few seconds later, he had already started to help with their injuries. Naruto exchanged glances with him again; the enemy's reinforcement was coming closer.

The Iwa assassination squads followed Sasuke' actions sharply with their eyes, but didn't break from their formation. It seemed that they had identified Naruto as the greater threat, or perhaps they simply didn't want to fall prey for the same paralyzing technique again.

The man in front of him spoke again, apparently he was the one in command here. This time, there were suspicion and uncertainty mixed together into one, "You might look like him, but appearance can be deceiving. For all we know, you could be an impostor."

How true… but if they were insulting his capabilities, they were in for a very big surprise.

"A ninja must see underneath the underneath, but there's always one way to find out, isn't it?" The words came out half-nonchalant, half-challenging, but his eyes spoke otherwise. Despite the bright sunlight, the unfathomable blue orbs glinted dangerously in darker hue, promising swift retributions to whomever foolish enough to cross him.

He surreptitiously created a kage bunshin without using any hand seals, and another Naruto appeared next to Sasuke, who was helping the injured ANBU member to his feet. This time, the enemies had changed their formation. Nine remaining Iwa-nin were surrounding him now, while three of the assassins vanished from their current position and reemerged near the Konoha group, eyes studying the doppelganger warily.

"How?" the kage bunshin asked, referring to the fast recovery rate of the ANBU team.

"Special blood pills," Sasuke replied. Naruto's twin nodded knowingly. Of course, they must have come from Sakura. He made a mental note to ask about their encounter later.

The Konoha team swiftly mustered in front of him. "Minato-senpai," the one Naruto presumed as their Captain spoke solemnly.

 _Minato-_ _senpai?_

The doppelganger managed to hide his surprise and panic well. Minato Namikaze had been in ANBU and he didn't know about it? Had these people been under his father's command previously, or was he still an ANBU member, even now?

Things were getting complicated. Naruto quickly decided that he and Sasuke had to get out of Tsuchi no Kuni as soon as possible to plan their next course of action.

He looked emotionlessly at the ANBU team in front of him; he would have to deal with them later. As much as he looked exactly like his father, there was no way he could imitate all of his characteristics. Hell, aside from whatever little information he had learned about him, he knew practically nothing about the man. The only similarities they shared were of the same features, affinity to sealing, and according to the late Ero-sennin, stubbornness and determination.

But that didn't mean he couldn't act like a respectable figure or get his orders obeyed instantly. Being a Hokage brought air of superiority to anyone.

"Get out of here, and fast. Others are approaching. Just let me handle this. I'll follow you shortly."

The four ANBU members didn't hesitate, "Hai."

Sasuke took this cue to start moving. "Lead the way," he said. It was not a request, but the genjutsu-induced Black Ops didn't really have time to ponder on that matter. They quickly sped towards the nearest national border while the Uchiha followed closely behind. The enemy's trio tried to give chase, but they had barely taken a few steps when three precise blows to each of their heads stopped their attempts completely. They simultaneously fell to the ground with a thud, unconscious.

Then the clone casually made his way to the direction taken by the Konoha team, ignoring his twin counterpart, the nine surprised elite squad members, and two frightened and injured jounin on the battlefield.

Naruto tried hard not to grin. The ANBUs had gotten away in one piece with Sasuke, now it was up to him to finish off the rest. From the way these shinobi were behaving, they seemed to want him alone. He knew instinctively that there was something strange going on here, and he was determined to find out that said business.

"Based on your description in our Bingo Book, you tend to avoid a battle or simply finish it in a flash, just like your moniker… And just now, both of you could have simply killed us in a heartbeat, but you didn't. I wonder why?"

Ah, of course they noticed it too. Now that was quite difficult to explain, but he didn't need to. If he had to kill, he didn't want to kill under someone else's name, especially while he was pretending to be his father.

"Then maybe you should update the information later," Naruto said, sarcasm was palpable in his voice, "If you still live after this."

The atmosphere was so thick with killer intent being directed threateningly at him that Naruto wondered if he could cut it with his kunai. But he simply ignored them as if they were nothing, although a normal jounin could have possibly been debilitated by these alone. His lack of reaction to such intimidation made the enemies tenser. In a way, they looked more disturbed than ever, as if they knew that they would never survive this battle.

'To have a bunch of elite assassins squirming like this, I wonder what kind of reputation he had in Iwa…' The blond mused silently. 'Hm, looks like they are almost here. Well, the more the merrier.'

The squad leader spoke again, "All of our shinobi have been given information on you, but it seems there's another threat we didn't know about. Konoha is surely breeding prodigies and hiding secret weapons nowadays."

Naruto knew instantly that he was referring to Sasuke, but offered no comments. Despite their lack of hitai-ate, anyone would easily realize that they were from Konoha, since he looked exactly like Namikaze Minato, and Sasuke had just revealed his village identity. He was hardly surprised by how quickly they had figured it out. The codes Sasuke used just now were exclusive to the Konoha ANBU, and even if they couldn't decipher the meaning, every elite shinobi had been trained to recognize characteristics of the other village's hand signals.

The man stared at Naruto dispassionately and said, "Not to mention a certain jutsu you used to suddenly appear in front of us earlier. How interesting…"

The blond stared back at him (or, more accurately, at the mask) unflinchingly, but he had secretly hoped that they would simply assume that whatever they might have seen just now, especially the bright golden light of his time-travel, was part of Minato's repertoire of jutsu. Besides, wasn't it the yellow flash that always accompanied his Hiraishin what had earned him the famous nickname? It could be because of the blond hair, but still…

"Are you done talking?" he said in a warning tone. Conversation with an enemy was always best served cold.

"Not quite. A flee-on-sight order has been issued on you, Namikaze-san, but our Tsuchikage was really hoping that you could join us. In fact, the offer stands still, even right now. This war is inevitable. Doesn't it appeal to you to become one of us and reap all the benefits of being a shinobi of your status?"

Naruto froze at that unexpected remark. Offer? Joining Iwa? He regarded the man impassively, hiding his suspicion as well as building anger under that facade. Was it true that Namikaze Minato had been asked to betray Konoha in favor of Iwa previously, or was it simply a bluff? Was this a plot to discredit his father's name by sowing the seeds of doubts concerning his loyalty, a ploy to make him lowering his guard or, to be more specific, reveal Naruto himself as an impostor?

He couldn't really detect anything in the man's expression which was hidden carefully behind porcelain, but he knew that his father would never entertain any thoughts of becoming a traitor to his own home country. For someone who had sacrificed his own life and made his son a jinchuuriki in order to save Konoha, such an idea would be an insult that could never be forgiven.

Suddenly, his killing intent spiked a little, aimed solely at the man in front of him.

Those around him didn't even have time to flinch when their squad leader fell to the ground, lifeless; the slight trickle of blood from his slit throat was evident to their eyes.

"That, shinobi, was a really, really wrong thing to say," Naruto stated calmly, emphasizing every word to the corpse at his feet, a kunai held firmly in his hand. His inhuman speed for the kill, and the unmistakably eerie expression on his face made the rest of the Iwa-nin recoil a little in an indecisive moment.

What was more, he looked almost as if he was regretting his act.

'This is not my fight, and yet I've already killed… at least I should have asked for more info, damn it…!'

Then it hit him.

He was so furious by the insinuation that his father would willingly become a traitor that he had completely forgotten that the dead man had already given him part of the information he required. Flee-on-sight order… offer from the Tsuchikage… inevitable war… they must have arrived perfectly somewhere on the verge of the Third Great Shinobi War!

Or so he thought.

His musing was cut off as the ground beneath him erupted in a loud roar, and a newly emerged group of Iwa-nin launched themselves towards him. But in that split second, he had already moved out of harm's way, and literally vanished completely from their sights. Their frantic search found him atop of a large rock not far behind them.

"What a bunch of fools. Did you really think that I wouldn't have sensed your presence miles away?"

From his new position on top of the rock, he swiftly studied the eight newcomers. Indeed, just as he had predicted earlier, more elite ninja coming for reinforcement.

One of the advantages of Iwagakure was that they had a lot of manpower at their disposal, unlike Konohagakure who were constantly lacked of available shinobi due to the village often being the target in war or power conflicts among other ninja villages, which finally contributed to Konoha's low mortality and birth rate. Iwagakure, being the one who usually instigated the animosity between the two didn't really suffer as much. This was mostly due to their country being a little isolated from others by the rocky mountain ranges that served as natural borders, making their country difficult to infiltrate and get out of.

He watched them moving quickly to a new attack formation around him in roughly fifty-meter radius. At the rate their determination showed him right now, he knew that they would try to catch him, either dead or alive, and he absolutely knew that even though they knew that they would never succeeded, they would still do it because it was their duty.

"Doton: Iwayado Kuzushi!"

Naruto immediately jumped from the rock he had occupied previously, which had already been smashed to pieces, and now was hurtling at him with deadly momentum. A few large rocks in that area had also been reduced to sharp-edged particles, and they too were coming for his blood. Suddenly, almost all types of weapons and doton jutsu were being thrown at him, or to be more precise, at his shadows. The ground around him shook, acidic mud splattered here and there, even one or two of the planted explosives were activated upon his landing on the ground, but none of their attacks could touch him.

His movement was just too fast to be predictable to their eyes, and it seemed that all they had managed to accomplish was to turn the area into more of a wasteland.

"What a mess…" the blond muttered to no one in particular as he knocked out his nearest target using the round end of his kunai.

He easily sidestepped three makibishi that came hurling at his feet from different angles, and then appeared behind one of the attackers as the caltrops caught each other and exploded. Thinking that they had gotten him this time, they approached warily towards the smoking ground only to have him knock the three of them out cold in one rapid combo. He stood silently, waiting for the remaining twelve to lash out at him.

Dodging flying missiles and all sorts of jutsu heading his way, he swiftly teleported from one foe to the other on the battleground, knocking out the rest of the attacking party either with his fists or the weapon's handle.

It didn't take long at all for him to put them out of commission.

"As for these two…"

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

They had heard of his name. They knew that he was held in high esteem in Konoha. In truth, his name often came out in every jounin meeting they had attended. More than a few occasions they had talked among themselves and wondered whether his reputation was exaggerated a little. When they were told that his status had even rivaled the Sannin and Shiroi Kiba, they had been quite worried for they knew that those people were easily at kage-level. Despite the rumor that Shiroi Kiba had died several years ago, Iwa wasn't really put at ease. Konoha always seemed to have an extra ace up her sleeve.

It was almost unbelievable for a single man who had hailed from that damn village to have proven to be such a threat to Iwa that it was once said that without him Konoha would easily crumble.

About a week ago, all available jounin were summoned by the Tsuchikage to an emergency meeting. Their leader had given his consent to openly assault and capture any encountered Konoha-nin for interrogation, or to kill them immediately if they tried to escape, under applicable situations and conditions. Any diplomatic ties with Hi no Kuni had been severed and strategies were heavily discussed to prepare them for the upcoming war. However, just before the meeting ended, he had announced that flee-on-sight order had been issued regarding the Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou, that any Iwa-nin was not to engage him in a battle unless he was seen in Tsuchi no Kuni  _and_  even then only as a last resort situation when it was deemed that they must fight.

Such as the situation they had been caught in right now…

They were on their way back from a patrol duty near the border when their group had detected a party's movement that seemed a little suspicious to pass as Iwa shinobi. Using the area to their advantages to obtain more information, they had confirmed that those people were indeed intruders from Konoha. A battle took place and their group had suffered heavy losses, but some of them managed to shoot an emergency flare in their last ditch effort for any nearby help. Unexpected but welcomed, their beacon call had guided a number of elite squad which in actuality had already been in pursuit of the enemies' team.

And here, they had hoped that the death of their comrades would be justified, only to witness the arrival of the person that would explicitly spell their impending doom.

That man had conveniently interrupted the fight with his light speed arrival in a blinding golden vortex. Then there was this young freak with him who could effortlessly paralyze the whole squadron and both of them, deepening their injuries without even moving from his spot. True, they had been caught off guard, but to be able to come up with such technique spoke mastery of different level, not to mention of how the two had managed to pop up out of nowhere in the beginning. Afterwards, the dark-haired man had simply brought a man from death's door by something that suspiciously looked like a pill. A mere blood clotting pellet or soldier pill shouldn't work wonders like that! He surely didn't look like a medic-nin to them, more like someone who was used to be a leader and in the frontline. Did the Slug Princess, the medic-Sannin invent such medication? If it was true, Konoha would obviously be harder to crush.

Was there the slightest chance for them to bring this information to the Tsuchikage? Somehow, they had doubted it.

Being weak and injured, and scared shitless to be of any use at all didn't stop them from observing everything that was happening. The blond's clone had appeared out of nowhere and effortlessly knocked out three men to prevent them from chasing after his fellow comrades. When they overheard the squad leader ask why all of them were still alive, they couldn't agree more, doubting his identity. As far as reputation preceded him, the Konoha Yellow Flash didn't show mercy, for nobody who fought him survived to tell the tale.

And what was this about him being offered to join Iwa? Despite their own surprise at that revelation, clearly he had viewed the proposal as such insufferable insult for his answer had prompted the death of the man who had brought the issue. Thereafter, watching him disposing of the remaining squad of Iwa Special Force, sixteen of them to be exact, without even breaking a sweat had totally wreaked indisputable terror into their heart. What was worse was the fact that he had merely been toying with them, stalling for time and giving them many opportunities to attack first.

The next thing they knew, he was standing right in front of them. Except for a few specks of dirt here and there, nothing on him indicated that he had just fought an intense battle. Not even a scratch. They could only stare speechless at him, acknowledging the powerful aura radiated from the young man and the ruthless wisdom in his eyes.

Now they understood why they were asked to flee in the first place.

Too bad, the two veterans couldn't even bring themselves to stand on their feet at the moment. So they did what one did when they knew that they had been totally defeated and that there was no hope left. They waited bravely for their own demise.

It didn't happen.

"I said, why don't you just answer my question so that I can go on my way?" Naruto repeated impatiently, a little annoyed that the jounin were too frozen to even realize that he was talking to them.

"Uh… uh, huh?!" one of them managed to blurt out, breaking the other from his self-imposed trance. Finally, he got their attention.

"I said, tell me what I want to know, and your lives will be spared," he said again, making sure that he sounded as emotionless as possible. Since he had steered the fight quite a distance away from where these two had been, he didn't really think that they could detect that none of their compatriots were dead, except for the squad leader. He would certainly use this to his advantage.

The one on the left stared unbelievingly at him, then said with a sneer, "And why in hell should we tell you anything? Just kill us already!" One might think that the brown-haired jounin was actually begging him to swiftly put him out of his misery.

Naruto didn't really feel compelled to oblige, so he asked instead, "I have served my purpose here, except for one thing. Tell me, shinobi, personally, do you really want this war to happen? Losing your loved ones in the process?"

He maintained an impassive face even when the men looked at him as if he had sprouted horns out of the top of his head. If there was one way to provoke a captive to speak, his harmless, but strange question was definitely effective enough, at least in his weird and unpredictable way. Although they weren't technically his prisoners, and Naruto certainly didn't intend to take them with him, they were totally under his mercy for the time being. As such, he might as well try to get any information he could while he had the chance.

 _Try_  being the keyword.

He might have spent some time with Morino Ibiki in the interrogation chamber, but besides blunt questions, blatant approach and annoying the hell out of  _both_  captive and mind torture specialist alike, he still sucked badly in mental games. Things were always better when he just spoke his mind.

"What the hell are you trying to do? Showing off your superiority to us? Just get this over with already!" Screaming those words hysterically, the man suddenly lunged forward, a throwing knife was clumsily tossed in the general direction of Naruto's stomach, but the blond simply grabbed the weapon just before it reached him and threw it to the ground with contempt.

"That was very foolish of you," he said, watching calmly as the man struggled half-consciously in agony to adjust his sitting position. The wound on his right thigh had reopened and blood was seeping freely from the cut, a reddish stain spreading across the hastily made bandage.

"Toga!" The other jounin quickly got to the bleeding man's side, eyes looking at Naruto frightfully. Despite his fear, he didn't hesitate in giving first aid to his friend. Naruto noticed that beneath the bandanna that served as his hitai-ate, the unnamed jounin had straight sandy hair which was tied together in a long ponytail. A once-over was enough to tell him that the man was suffering from chakra exhaustion and minor physical injuries, and they couldn't recover any faster because they were already out of supply. Nothing out of ordinary here, fighting a group of well-trained ANBU clearly took that much.

"You should get him proper treatment soon; if you don't that wound could get infected pretty quickly." Naruto started to walk away from the pathetic scene, but a shaky voice stopped him from his track.

"No…"

He turned his head half-way, waiting patiently for Toga's companion to give an explanation.

"Personally, I didn't want it to happen. I lost a son on a mission years ago, this war could bring worse. But shinobi are just tools, we don't really question orders. I'd have thought someone like you would have known that, so why did you ask?"

"No particular reason. I simply wanted to know."

"Then allow me to ask you. Why didn't you kill us when you're certainly capable of doing so?" the man asked grimly. Apparently he had overcome his fear of the blonde's reputation, either that or the heat and battle distress had caught up to him, moving him beyond caring for his own survival.

"Is the war official yet? At least on your side?" Naruto asked quietly, now completely facing them. Toga had already fallen unconscious in his friend's lap.

The man hesitated a little, but answered nonetheless, "No, but it will in a short time."

"How short?"

"We don't really know. No authorized orders yet."

"Then I have no real reason to kill you." The blond started moving on his way again, well aware that the day was turning evening. Despite the hot wind and unbearable heat that was associated with the land, the day was already growing cool and the evening would bring even lower temperatures. He had lingered more than he should.

"But we're still enemies, and you've just entered our territory. It's a valid reason enough. If you can kill the whole squad, why spare us?"

Naruto raised one eyebrow, "It should be obvious. You didn't attack me, and I don't make it a habit to kill helpless people."

"That's not true. Toga just attacked you, and if today's event counts, everyone is helpless against you." The Iwa jounin continued in an accusing tone, "Yet you still chose to kill all of them."

"Did I, really?" the blond asked. His face slowly formed into an indecipherable, almost sad smile as his eyes surveyed the bodies and damage around him. "Whatever it is, I have my own reason. Cling to the chance you've been given to live, shinobi. Life is too precious to waste away."

That being said, he simply disappeared in a bright flash, leaving the awestruck man to his own thoughts.

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

They had been moving at top speed for almost an hour in the critical zone before slowing to a moderate but constant pace towards the southwest border where Tsuchi, Taki and Kusa no Kuni met. Oddly, they didn't encounter any resistance at all after taking their flight from the country. At the rate they were going currently, they could probably reach the intended destination after nightfall.

Both of them were moving side by side, with the ANBU team guiding the escape route. Sasuke hadn't completely released them from his subtle genjutsu yet, and Naruto noticed that he was beginning to tire a little. Even though it didn't take a lot of chakra for it to work, he would still feel encumbered by the control he needed to exercise while in constant movement, especially without revealing to their 'escorts' that he was an Uchiha. Since he knew that there's no way in hell the bastard would admit even an ounce of weakness, Naruto masked his concern away. Besides, Sasuke could always take care of himself.

But Sasuke wasn't the only one being observed. Not long after the blond joined them, Sasuke had immediately sensed that something was wrong with him, but decided to wait until they had separated from the other team to ask.

They continued their journey in silence, and reached the border of the three countries four hours later. Naruto knew that they could make it faster, but given the condition of the group, they decided to slow down a little. No matter how miraculous Sakura's medicine was, forcing the tissues and muscles to regenerate at a much faster rate and then straining them further with vigorous physical activities would still have some side effects, unless they had a medic-nin to monitor their progress. He didn't know if any of them was a medic-nin, but even in the future when all ANBU members were taught the rudimentary medic skills, chances were they would still not be good enough to diagnose and treat conditions resulting from a medicine they'd never seen or heard of before.

Regardless, they still needed to get some place for the ANBU team to rest safely, and then he and Sasuke needed to make their own escape.

Once they had moved a little further into Kusa no Kuni, Naruto announced to the group, "I think we can stop here for a while." He looked up to see that the moon had fully shown itself, illuminating the small area with its pale light. The place was populated by large mushrooms as tall as trees, clusters of bamboo, and a small stream was running smoothly nearby. They went there to wash and refresh themselves, and one of the ANBUs caught enough fish for dinner.

Naruto informed them that he would get more firewood and seal the area so that nobody could interrupt their rest for the night while Sasuke busied himself in the mushroom trees, checking whether they were poisonous or not. By the time Naruto returned, they had already made camp beneath one super large mushroom canopy. A medium-sized bonfire kindled brightly in the dark, allowing them the much needed warmth for the chilling night.

Later, all six of them gathered around the fire, enjoying their meal in peace. Since they had taken flight from Tsuchi no Kuni several hours ago, none of them had requested any permission to stop, and conversation was limited to important matters only, such as the best route to take and their main destination. Now, Naruto had more time to study the group. They had taken their masks off, and as expected, all of them had the same clean, emotionless face of a hardened shinobi. Except for the captain, who looked like he was roughly in his early thirties, the rest of them were quite young.

He decided to start the conversation first, "You were lucky there. A few minutes later and none of you would have made it."

The captain, who introduced himself as Akira from ANBU squad 10 in his codes exchange with Sasuke earlier, raised his face towards Naruto and replied, "We know. It was a real surprise when you just showed up like that and rescued us. We are in your debt, Minato-san."

Naruto applauded himself for not choking on his fish. Although he didn't really mind disguising himself as his father, he still had trouble adjusting to being addressed that way. This team, or at least the captain, seemed quite familiar with Namikaze Minato, judging from how they spoke to him using the first-name basis. Nudging his flask to the direction of the speaker, he simply nodded to the thanks and then eagerly sipped his drink from the container.

"And you really saved my life. But I've never seen you before. Care to give a name, captain-san?" the guy opposite Sasuke joined into the talk, the portion of his meal had been fully consumed. His slightly pineapple-like hair reminded Sasuke of Shikamaru, except that his was longer and a bang framed the sides of his temples. He had a deep flesh wound between the left ribs, with lots of cuts on other parts of his body. Thankfully, nothing was broken and two of Sakura's special pills were enough to fix and speed up the healing process until he got real medical attention.

Sasuke looked at the brown-haired man briefly before he flashed a smirk, "What makes you think that I'm a captain, ANBU-san?"

"The name is Kenji. Saw the tattoo when you cleaned yourself in the river just now. Since you are in the club and we have never seen you before, there are only two things that I can think of. Either you're the hidden type who only do S-class and undercover missions, which in that case would automatically qualify you as a captain were you to take a team, or…" two clones suddenly popped out of nowhere, each had a kunai pointed with lethal precision on Naruto's and Sasuke's throat, " _both_  of you are impostors."

If Sasuke could have demanded why they were suspected as impostors, he would have, but one word and he might lose his larynx, as well as his life. Therefore, he remained quiet, waiting for the next thing to happen. He wasn't disappointed when a sharp tap at the back of his neck froze whatever movement he planned to carry out. Naruto, who was formerly sitting next to Kenji before the man and the rest of them vacated their seats, had also suffered the same fate.

If the circumstances were different, Naruto and Sasuke – mostly Naruto – might have thought it funny that Sasuke had paralyzed an entire squadron of Iwa elite squad with his cool technique only to have a couple of the captain's clones return the favor a few hours later with only a flick of kanashibari.

"Now, tell me who the hell are you, and how did you get such tattoo and high-level clearance of ANBU codes? Who do you work for?"

The clones had dispersed, and a few taps on his temples released his oral functions from restriction, while the rest of his body stayed paralyzed. It was an all too well-known procedures that Sasuke had occasionally used on prisoners himself; he didn't have to test it out to know that he couldn't even turn his head at the moment.

'Preliminary interrogation already, huh?'

"What makes you think we're working for anyone other than Konoha?" he tried his luck. One didn't need to become an ANBU to be on familiar terms with what was coming consequently.

A fierce tug on his hair was a tad too soft for retaliation, at least in his opinion. Maybe Kenji owed him that much. From his tunnel vision, Naruto was going through the same treatment from the red head ANBU, with the captain watching the blond alertly for any attempts to escape. Being the shortest in the group, Sasuke assumed the boy to be around his late teens, probably around seventeen or eighteen years old, and he was holding something like a three-pronged kunai and was pointing it accusingly towards the blond. Another man punched Naruto in the stomach after receiving some crude remark that was really Naruto-like. If Sasuke could smirk, he would definitely do so.

'Hn. Speeding things up now, aren't we?'

"You're not in any position to ask questions right now,  _captain_ -san. I repeat. Who the hell are you, and what was your intention there in the first place?" Kenji demanded again.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out." As soon as he had said that, a punch followed suit. Blood trickled slowly from the split end of his mouth, trailing a thin path down the jaw and ended up staining his white shirt. Neither Kenji nor Captain Akira this time, it was the courtesy of the dark-haired man whom he didn't have opportunity to get an introduction yet. First Naruto, and now him. That guy was sure a little bit prone to violence in his methods of interrogation.

"Don't want to cooperate, huh? Fine then, let's go for the next stage..." They dragged him around the fire without any resistance and placed him next to Naruto. At the close proximity, his numbing senses could easily catch the words being thrown at his friend's face.

"You had the guts to disguise yourself as him…" the red-headed teenager in front of them spat at the blond. "I didn't know how you did that, but you'll surely tell us once we're finished with you. You know what, spy? You might have fooled us once, but nothing can fool this!" The paper seal wrapping the three-pronged kunai glowed briefly in his grasp, but other than that nothing happened.

Sasuke could only draw the conclusion that the strange kunai had something to do with the identification of Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou. Damn Namikazes and their bag of sealing tricks, he guessed.

Then the captain did a series of familiar hand seals – monkey, snake, ox, bird; they were being forced under Jigyaku no Jutsu! And abruptly he found himself losing control of his thoughts…

It might be effective if they were real. Unfortunately, the memories of a clone was very limited to a certain predefined information, and no matter how strong their bodies were created to take physical blows, putting them into a state of reverse hypnosis was too overpowering for their mind to handle that they simply disappeared into oblivion.

"What the… kage bunshin? How...?!" the dark-haired ANBU blurted out in surprise. Kenji and the red-haired ANBU quickly surveyed their immediate area using the night vision tools of their masks to guide them but found nothing to track in the dark, except for some small harmless animals. When they wanted to get deeper into the woods, the captain halted their progress, and upon the order they returned to the camp empty-handed.

"I've checked the sealing the blond did around the camp just now. It would indeed protect us from detection by enemies or dangerous animals alike as long as all of us stayed inside the parameters. From it alone I know that he was a very high level shinobi. We would have died if they really intended to harm us," the captain stated gravely.

"Remember when I suddenly realized that we've been tricked? It was when I was alone in the stream." the redhead said, taking his mask off and hung it at his waist. "Felt like whatever clouding my thoughts clearly gone and suddenly I can think straight again, enough to notice that something wasn't right here."

"Me too, while preparing our dinner. A very subtle and powerful genjutsu, don't you think? To be able to sustain it for so long, it's almost unheard of. Whichever did that must possess damn good chakra control, not to mention a natural genjutsu user," Kenji added on.

"I don't think it's the blond. While all of us were busy with our tasks, the other man was in the trees, probably watching us. He could easily wait for the right moment to withdraw his technique, whatever it was, switched himself with a doppelganger, and planned his escape…" the dark-haired man deduced thoughtfully, resentment at the fact that their prisoners had conveniently slipped away was still etched on his face.

The team exchanged knowing looks with each other as they came to the same conclusion.

"Just right after the blond returned – as kage bunshin," the captain concluded in a matter-of-fact voice. "They got us twice."

"All in all, they spell trouble, and from the little displays of their skills today we know that they are very powerful. I doubt we could really track them in our current conditions. Heck, I'm not sure we could do that even at our full power."

"You shouldn't have told him your name in the first place, Kenji," the dark-haired ANBU admonished, his fingers absently tracing at the cracked lines on the bird-mask hanging at his waist, "Especially since they are our enemies."

"Potential enemies," Kenji corrected, and continued almost cheerfully, "Somehow I got the feelings that the tattoo is too real to be a fake, and thanks to the moon, I just happened to have a clear view at that time. Everything about him simply screamed a full-fledged ANBU to me. Even after their revelation as impostors, I couldn't really see them as bad guys. Besides, he saved my life. And they indeed saved all of us, mind you, enemies or not. Consider that as a payment."

The man snorted at the answer, but didn't give any comment. Kenji always took things lightly, and sometimes he wondered how the man could make it to ANBU with such carefree attitude. However, he also knew that his teammate was quite a decent shinobi himself, and above all things, he could never ask for a more loyal companion. Running the fingers through his spiky dark hair, he walked closer towards them, waiting for the next order from Captain Akira.

"It's obvious that our combatants are beyond our level, despite their youthful appearance. Get some rest for tonight, all of you. We'll move at top speed to Konoha first thing tomorrow morning, and bring this matter to Hokage-sama's attention when we submit the mission report." Then the captain added some more under his breath, "Come to think of it, it looks as if they really did us a favor… if only we can get their true identity and purpose."

"Aye aye, Captain."

Deep and high up in the gigantic mushroom trees, two figures observed the team for a moment longer before vanishing completely into the darkness.

**To be continued…**

* * *

Canon Glossary (taken from Wikipedia et al.)

Doton: Iwayado Kuzushi – Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction. B-rank, offensive, all ranges. A jutsu which dislodges rocks in the nearby area where the user will launch to crush the opponents, the hurtling rocks can be broken to smaller pieces to attack at different angles. In Kakashi Gaiden, this jutsu had crushed and killed Uchiha Obito when Kakashi and he attempted to rescue Rin from two Iwa-nin who had kidnapped her.

Hiraishin no Jutsu – Flying Thunder God Technique. Minato Namikaze's signature jutsu that earned him the moniker Konoha Yellow Flash.

Jigyaku no Jutsu – Time Reversal Technique. An ANBU technique that puts the target in a state of reverse hypnosis, allowing them to remember details they otherwise would not. Target would comply under interrogation, but seems to retain his personality while under hypnosis.

Kanashibari no Jutsu – Temporary Paralysis Technique. Konoha ANBU uses this technique to incapacitate a recipient for a short time by sending a shockwave of chakra through the nervous system, usually by jabbing the middle and index fingers on the forehead or just below the skull.

Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou – The Yellow Flash of Konoha. Namikaze Minato's nickname.

Shiroi Kiba – White Fang, a moniker for Hatake Sakumo, Kakashi's father who had committed suicide in disgrace due to his decision to save his comrades' lives over a mission, which in the end caused Konoha to suffer great losses. Minato once told Uchiha Obito that Sakumo's legendary skills could even rival the three sannin.

Tsuchi no Kuni – Land of Earth. It is located northwest of the Land of Fire (Hi no Kuni) and borders the Land of Grass (Kusa no Kuni), Land of Waterfall (Taki no Kuni), Land of Rain (Ame no Kuni) and other countries.

Non-Canon Glossary

Suraikou – Lightning Cobweb, at least A-rank, supportive, 0-20 meters in radius. A ninjutsu created by Sasuke which is inspired from the Kanashibari no Jutsu, which can trap and paralyze many targets within range. The strength of the jutsu depends on Sasuke's control.

* * *

 Many thanks to Kylewin for betaeing for me, you rock! And please note that whatever discrepancies you might find out in this chapter are most likely from me butchering on the language afterwards.

There, the introduction to the real thing. For those who are too lazy to do the calculation previously, Sasuke is 20, Naruto is turning 20 soon. From the prologues, I think many people can already guess the main idea by now, the summary itself is self-explanatory and I had put bits of clues here and there. And it's not really as easy as it sounds either since I tend to make things complicated. Any plot-holes that are not really clear here will be covered gradually in the upcoming chapters.

Don't worry if you think that our heroes are uber-powered in this chapter; a few years are quite possible enough for Naruto to surpass everyone, and at this point Sasuke has probably surpassed Itachi. Things won't really be easy for them as the story progresses, so just keep track on it to know, ok? :)

Thank you for reading. Hope everyone enjoy it. Ja ne!


	4. Prisoner of Time

**o…oOOo…o**

It was a scene of dreadful carnage. It was horrible. It was revolting. And even so, he couldn't bring himself to stop.

His Sharingan eyes bored emotionlessly at the destruction around him, ignoring the pathetic resistance and terrified screams coming from his opponents and victims as his body advanced on its own will, striking at everyone who dared to block his path. Every wound he had inflicted, every life that he had taken, he  _couldn't_  care at all. Vengeance, hatred, and the temptation to destroy everything around him were too strong to resist.

Not that there were many people left to stop him. Most had either fled the area, scattered with the remains of what used to be Danzo's secret headquarters of Root, or wound up dead trying to be heroic. He didn't really bother to check whether they were totally dead before moving on, though.

_Good. Keep going, Sasuke. Kill these people; raze this place to the ground. And don't stop until there's nothing left but the spoils of war._

He paused midway, frowning. One gloved hand touched the side of his head as fleeting moments of uncertainty, self-conscious, confusion and foreboding took place, together with a growing headache. His rebellious nature prompted him to object to such intrusion in his mind. "I take orders from no one. I do what I please. Get out of my head!"

_Ah, I see. But know this, Sasuke, your resistance to my probe will only hurt you in the end. Remember, you're under my control now._

"Hn. Like hell you can control me. Now get lost!"

_Your stubbornness will bring you nothing but pain. Never forget, you're mine… my personal marionette. You dance when I tell you to._

Sasuke grabbed his head, stifling a biting remark when the voice suddenly became more than annoyance. Pain exploded inside his skull, making him double over clumsily forward. He fought for control, but unseen powers ripped through his mental barriers, as his subconscious slowly succumbed to the silent commands again.

Then a quiet, lethal move near him alerted him to an enemy's presence. However, the momentary relapse hindered nothing of his fighting reflex. Just in time, he rolled over onto his back to avoid a well-aimed kunai and thrust his Kusanagi upward. The blade sliced easily right through the heart of his opponent.

'Hn. Just another moron who had a death wish.'

Simultaneously pulling the chokuto out and kicking the dead body backward before it fell on top of him, Sasuke jumped on his feet, flicking the bloodstain off his weapon. Then he looked around for more Ne-ANBU, whatever left of the faction after he had killed their leader some time ago. He found three of them, injured but determinedly prepared for his attack. He welcomed the numbing pain in his head as well as the destructive instincts, and dashed forcefully to intercept their hand seals before he got bombarded with triple ninjutsu. Two were dead before they hit the ground, and in deliberate motion, he directed his crimson eyes to freeze the third nin on his track, relishing the waves of fear he felt coming from the man.

And watched steely as his final blow was denied when two orange blurs surged by and took the already hallucinating man away.

"Stop, Sasuke! This isn't you at all. Snap out of his control before you regret it!"

Deflecting a rain of kunai coming from behind him with ease, he turned around towards the newcomer. A maniacal grin appeared on his face when he saw a familiar figure stood challengingly before him. He pointed his blade towards the boy, hardly acknowledging the silent fury and troubled expression in the blue eyes.

"So you've finally come. Let's end this, Naruto. Once and for all."

The blond gritted his teeth, clenching and unclenching his fists in futile efforts to suppress his anger. "That's not what I'm talking about! Look around you. Did you realize what you've done? Snap out of it now!"

"Hn."

_He's an annoyance, Sasuke. He has been thwarting my plans so many times in the past. Get rid of him. You know you want to._

With a mocking smirk, the Uchiha calmly lowered his gaze to the ground, and when he raised his face again, the tomoe was spinning crazily, the madness Naruto could see there was enough to send jolts up his spine.

Killing intents from both of them slowly filled the devastated area, and Sasuke greedily immersed himself in the rush of adrenaline flowing inside his bloodstreams.

Naruto took on his familiar stance, fingers crossing as a bunch of exact replicas of him appeared randomly in the area. "Call me selfish, but I'll bring you back, Sasuke, no matter what it takes. And this time, I'll keep my promise."

Sasuke ignored the solemn declaration, silently waiting for his opponents to begin their attack.

A barrage of shuriken, their sharp points enhanced with deadly wind-chakra flew towards the Uchiha from all direction, targeting his potential weak spots. Effortlessly, he countered all of them with his own, only to find that they were cut through like some piece of butter. Knowing that it was useless to channel lightning-chakra into his blade, he avoided them instead, instantly burning all of the missiles using his fire-technique. They fell to the ground, chipped, crisped and useless. Using the advantage of his speed, he pinpointed the position of the clones, taking them one by one. The last five, however, was not that easy to kill, but Sasuke also knew that subterfuge was Naruto's specialty.

"Chidori Current."

Huge lightning wave lit the evening as charred trees and soil added to the weird assortment of the destroyed landscape. The clones caught within the jutsu range poofed away, but even before the effect disappeared, his keen senses warned him to turn around. Sasuke did, and was fast enough to avoid a Rasengan aimed at his abdomen. In controlled movement, they inched closer, trading blows back and forth, then took their distance to analyze their situation before they came up with their techniques again.

The cycle went on and on. Chakra was spent gradually, sparks flew when their weapons clashed with each other, and damage was inflicted accordingly. And yet the battle continued incessantly. To a few of the viewers who were confident enough of their skills, or rather suicidal enough to watch the fight, the two's movements were just like a beautifully choreographed dance, albeit a strange and bloody one.

That was when Sasuke realized that something was not quite right. His genjutsu didn't work at all. During their fight he had targeted his adversary with his mind illusion, but Naruto seemed to quietly, easily dispel it off. So that was it. Somehow the blond had improved his skill in dispelling his Sharingan genjutsu, but to what extend, Sasuke was eager to find out.

His lips shaped into a twisted, grim smile as he finally submitted to the constant urging, bloodthirsty command in his head that ordered him to bring the fight to the next level. "Enough of the warming up. Now, I'll bring you hell."

Naruto stared at him unflinchingly, waiting readily for his next move.

He activated his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan just at the same time the part on Naruto's eyes morphed into something else.

_Sage mode... Don't hold back now._

Sasuke didn't have time to ponder on that instruction, for he knew instantly that his eyes didn't change – they were still in their normal Sharingan form. Panic, and something akin to fear molded their way into his heart. He started to hear voices, telling him to 'snap out of it'. He tried to call forth his ultimate Kekkei Genkai again, but couldn't. Even his Sharingan wavered a little, black dots started to mar his visualization. Naruto just stood there, didn't make any attempt to attack him, although the blond had now gained the upper hand. Feeling a little bit cornered by this new feeling of insecurities, Sasuke did snap.

Gathering his strength and chakra, he charged towards Naruto with a snarl.

Only to feel greater terror as all of his next movements were easily read, his attacks blocked, his favorite weapon forcefully snatched from his grasp, and his eyes suddenly failed him. Darkness engulfed his vision, different voices yelled relentlessly inside his head, accusing, blaming – condemning him for his corruption. A sense of despair and helplessness went through him as he crawled on all fours, his hand reaching out blindly, trying to find a way out from the dark abyss, but found none.

A presence, its aura so full of malice and hatred, enveloped his soul.

 _You betrayed me, Sasuke. You'll pay for it. Dearly_.

"Aargh! Get the hell away from me!"

Bile rose to his throat, threatening to spill out the meager contents of his stomach. Sasuke fought the urge to vomit, hands flailing weakly to find something he could anchor to, and almost yelped in surprise when his body was flipped on his back as he felt two pairs of hands grabbed his upper body and pinned him to the ground, firmly confining his struggles. Then one of his assaulters spoke. A clear, familiar voice dominated his eardrums as all the other disturbances inside his brains receded to the back of his mind.

"Hush. It's alright now. Just open your eyes and wake up, Sasuke."

He kept struggling, not trusting the vulnerable position he was put into by that person. He couldn't even move an inch.

When the man spoke again, curious impatience laced his bizarre speech. "Uchiha Sasuke, wake up this instance or I, The Great Orange Hokage will kick your butt so hard you'll warp up in a different dimension!" To add to the effect, Sasuke felt his body was shaken roughly, but still, it refused to oblige.

'Orange... what?' There were other series of garbled words coming out of the mouth of his tormentor which he couldn't figure out as he felt darkness temptingly dragged him under again.

"Teme, you'd better get a grip on yourself or I'll transform into Danzo in Sexy no Jutsu and shave your head bald you'll regret it for the rest of your life! Eww fuck, where did that come from?"

And  _that_  did it.

Sasuke was jolted back to awareness with a start, eyes widened in shocked as blood pounding in his ears, small beads of perspiration glistening on his skin. He gasped softly, taking a deep breath when he realized that he had been holding it long enough to feel dizzy, then tried to calm his racing heart until it slowed down to the more normal beat.

Alerted of the fact that his Sharingan had been instinctively triggered at some point, the tomoe swirling wildly in confusion at his current condition, he quickly willed it off. He tried to sit up, barely aware that Naruto and his kage bunshin were helping him for the task.

"Danzo…" His lips curled in distaste at the name. "He's dead."

An amused voice answered him. "Of course. You killed him."

He blinked, raising his face to notice two figures in front of him. As his own obsidian eyes met Naruto's cerulean blue, the fire near them making silhouettes of older, concern-looking Narutos no less, he immediately realized that he had been dreaming. A portion of vivid, mixed portrayal of events that relived in his dreams again and again, that had tormented him for years before it faded gradually. And now, it just resurfaced uninvited.

He tilted his head, signaling Naruto that he had calmed down enough to be left to his own device. "It's okay. I'm fine now."

Naruto released his support on Sasuke's shoulders, and immediately stood up, giving Sasuke some time to adjust. Calmly, he took his kunai from the ground next to his friend and put it back into his weapon pouch. Nodding his head to the right, where Sasuke's chokuto had somehow ended up stabbing the tree trunk, the blond commented wryly, "Welcome back to reality, though you tend to already get really physical even before you did."

Ignoring the complain, Sasuke rubbed his face with his hands for a moment, and then got to his feet, taking his sheath with him as he moved to retrieve his weapon. Naruto's clone helped pulling it out and tossed it to him before it dispersed away. Catching it perfectly, he wiped the dirt off the blade and put it back into its sheath. He checked around, noting that there was no permanent damage at their current resting place, except for the mark made by his sword on the tree trunk. Clearly Naruto had managed to stop him before it escalated into an unscheduled spar – with him fighting subconsciously in sleeping mode, but eyes wide opened.

The last time he remembered, his former history with this kind of nightmare often involved him screaming and trying to rearrange the condition of the small room where he was previously quartered. He was once told that he had nearly killed one of the two ANBUs guarding him when he went berserk like a beast on rampage at one night, before they finally rendered him out cold and got Sakura to sedate him. He knew that it was hard to restrain him without injuring anyone in the process, because his natural speed, dexterity and strength were higher than many shinobi. And to the people whom he had hurt in the past, to not give in into temptation and murder him out of revenge was harder. Even if at that time he was declared unstable and chakra bounded, and the ones watching him were trusted people under the direct order of the Hokage.

Those horrible dreams visited him the most throughout the early stage of his captivity, prompting the guards to put him into a strait-jacket and strap him to bed every night. His condition had slowly declined until his chakra was no longer sealed. However, when it occurred later, it had caused greater destruction on the reformatory building in the former Uchiha compound due to his ninjutsu. Thankfully, Naruto had also temporarily sealed his Sharingan, or else he might have truly brought chaos to Konoha again. The Hokage, sensing that something was wrong through the connection between their blood seals had rushed immediately to him with Sakura in tow. With the blond acting as the decoy, Sakura had shot his system down using tranquilizer senbon before treating his wounds afterwards. For fear of assassination attempts, the kunoichi was the only medic-nin allowed to heal him.

It was quite strange. During his breakdown period, after he was done trying to kill himself, and failed each time, he was always impassive, as harmless as a baby when he was conscious. But once the nightmare took over, the mental battle in his mind had somehow turned him physically into a desperate fighter who regarded everyone around him as enemies who must be vanquished.

Many thought that he was a lost cause, yet his friends gave him the chance to recuperate. They expected and tolerated his erratic behavior until he could control himself, at least until the nightmares remained nightmares. Nothing more than that, except him panting heavily and covered up in sweats when he woke up, plus a crumpled bed from his trashing. They had never stopped encouraging him to reclaim his spirit and absorb the redeeming light again. He never asked, but he knew what they wanted. The same thing he craved to do ever since he had let go of his hatred and vengeance.

If only he could forgive himself as easily.

'Damn you, Madara. We'll get you and put an end to your cowardly, worthless existence.'

"…suke, don't just space out on me right after waking up!" Naruto waved his hand in front of him, jerking him to attention. A few small woods were tucked in his other arm. "Go get refreshed or something. We still have about three hours before dawn. You can continue resting if you'd like to."

Startled a little at the last remark, Sasuke quickly regained his composure. "It's alright. I'm going to the stream anyway. Want me to fill up the bottles for you?" Without waiting for answer, he walked towards their makeshift beds, where all of their provisions, some taken out from the scrolls were gathered together. Naruto grinned, carelessly throwing the woods into the dying flame. It caught on them and started burning fiercely again. "Thanks. I'll prepare some food for us. Don't bother checking for fish. The only ones I could sense were probably a little bigger than anchovies anyway."

He nodded. Taking his sling bag and their water flasks, Sasuke made his way to the small waterfall, all the while couldn't help but relate his recurring nightmare to their current mission.

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

Their too-early-for-breakfast was small; it only consisted of instant porridge Naruto got in his food scroll and a handful of wild fruits he foraged in the bush near their campsite. Resting became their top priority right now, taking into account the hectic day they had gone through the moment they landed in Tsuchi no Kuni. To Sasuke, the time-travelling alone had drained almost half of his chakra reserve, as his energy and chakra pattern was required to allow him into the ride. Considering the incredible amount of chakra the Hokage had released that time to perform the jutsu, Naruto didn't joke when he said that a lesser person would have died if they tagged along. Sasuke was fortunate that he had much larger chakra storage compared to normal shinobi, though by the time they reached this place he was already at his limit.

They had traveled as fast as possible to the west right after they escaped the ANBUs' camp northeast of Kusa earlier last night. However, they decided to retrace their steps up north, entering Taki just before they encountered another set of national borders of Kusa, Taki and Hi no Kuni. They couldn't risk infiltrating Hi no Kuni with their condition at the moment. Due to the unexpected circumstances, they lacked the information and strategy to face the consequences of their actions, not to mention sleep-deprived and starving.

Sasuke, using the experience he had with a few reconnaissance missions into the country previously, led them to a lush forested area he knew was quite hidden from prying eyes. Picking a nice site near a waterfall, Naruto wasted no time to seal the area from unnecessary disturbances while Sasuke lit the fire and spread some ponchos from the scroll in his bag for their beds. Naruto, being a stamina freak that he was, offered to be the first watch, which Sasuke gladly accepted. He lied down and immediately fell asleep.

Only to be snared in an unpleasant dream that woke him up. No, that dream didn't wake him up at all – it was sucking him into an endless abyss, trapping him there like a prisoner of time until Naruto pulled him out to consciousness. He must be exhausted enough last night that he had dropped his guard down. Dead asleep, the nightmare could easily take root inside his brains and seize control the deepest part where his remorseful memories were locked up, causing him to regress.

Or worse, it had something to do with the premonition he was having right now, something that left him with a bad feeling and made him uneasy, like their appearance in this dimension was already known by an unseen force. If that was true, Sasuke had a really good idea what it could be, or to be precise, who  _he_  could be.

He raised his head sharply when a transparent medium size zipper storage bag half-filled with succulent wild berries was shoved in front of him. They looked really fresh and clean after being washed, and it seemed that Naruto had munched half of them already.

"Hey, you're doing it again! Eat this, it's not much but it helps to restore some of your energy," Naruto said in concern. Then he grinned, the whisker marks accentuated his face like a fox up to something mischievous. "Or…" he dangled the plastic bag temptingly as if it were some piece of meat to bait a hungry guard dog, "Don't regret it if I finish all of them if you keep spacing out at your own convenience."

Smirking, the dark-haired man snatched the bag from Naruto's hand with ease. "Hn, not on your life. They said food revenge is terrible. And I take this coz I'm sure that there's nothing left out there anymore except for the green ones." He took one into his mouth and found out that it was not too sweet, just perfect to wash the aftertaste of the porridge he ate just now. Knowing that it certainly tasted much better than Sakura's medicine, which shouldn't be consumed recklessly, Sasuke quickly gobbled up the rest of the berries inside the container.

"We need to get some real food later in the afternoon. What we have here could hardly be called a meal."

Naruto's eyes stared longingly at the last berry before it vanished into Sasuke's mouth. "Yeah, I feel like I could eat a jaguar right now." His belly chose that moment to growl loudly, and he rubbed his abdomen soothingly with his hand in an exaggerated manner. "See? It agrees wholeheartedly! Ah… if only they have a ramen stall here!"

"Idiot! The sealing you did wouldn't even let animals larger than rabbit in, and who would be stupid enough to open a ramen stall in the middle of the forest?" Throwing the empty, wet storage bag into the fire near them, Sasuke watched Naruto's antics with laughter in his eyes. "And dobe, there's no jaguar here in Waterfall Country."

Naruto yawned slightly, one hand wiping the moisture off his eyes. "Don't be a smartass. Did you think I didn't know that? I couldn't even find a rabbit hole here. Of course, we got better chance to catch 'em in the evening rather than at this hour." The blond stood up, stretching and yawning deeply this time. He had used up too much chakra since yesterday and he would need to eat a really large amount of food to compensate for that. He threw several dry twigs into the flame to make it last longer before sitting on his poncho.

As if reading his thought, Sasuke said, "If I'm not mistaken, there should be a small town about 15 miles to the east, though I'm not sure it exists in this timeline or not. However, once we find an eating establishment, you can pig out and stuff yourself silly for all I care." He leaned against the nearest tree trunk just across their one-piece beds. A hand was resting on the raised kneecap of his right leg, his left leg stretched out straight on the ground. His other hand rested comfortably on the thigh. His eyelids felt heavy, and he closed his eyes, thinking that one or two extra hours of sleep would be better than none at all.

Lying down on his thin bed on the ground, Naruto yawned again. He stretched his hands upright and propped one of his knee up. Then he intertwined all his fingers and put his hands under his head, supporting it like a pillow. "I can't help it. That's the best way to restock most of my chakra after so many hours of exertion," he grumbled defensively, his voice slurring a little. "Hmm, I got a real nice plan in the morning. But before that, better catch up some zzz's."

A few seconds passed by without any reply, but Naruto didn't mind it. The sound coming from the small insects in the forest was like music to his ears, lulling him into slumber. His body was relaxing contentedly as sleep came to claim him. He took a deep breath, liking the natural calming scent of the tropical rainforest. His drooping eyes were about to close when Sasuke called his name quietly.

"…Naruto," he stirred at the sound. "Thank you." If the blond really looked up in front of him right now, he might have seen one of the rarest genuine smiles that graced Sasuke's features.

"Nah… forget it." His tired face softened a little. "Just rest, Sasuke."

Then Sasuke's smile changed abruptly into an evil smirk, gleaming eyes targeting his unsuspecting prey. "And Naruto… never ever transform into your Danzo's version of Sexy no Jutsu just to shave my hair off, pervert. The thought alone was gross enough. I love my hair. If you ever try to harm it in any way, I might kill you, friend or not." He shot the words out with the usual no nonsense voice of his, a teasing hint palpable there that the stunned Naruto couldn't grasp at first.

Understanding crept in with the red darkening of his ears as Naruto wished for the ground to swallow him and spare him the embarrassment. His reaction was instantaneous. Naruto sat up so fast that his sleepy head turned light-headed from the sudden movement.

"AAACCKKK!"

Scrunching up face muscles, he comically stifled his surprise at being discovered. Creepy Sharingan, plus a creepy Sasuke. He should have known better.

Then he saw Sasuke's smirk got wider, one of his eyes was closed and Naruto realized that the Uchiha just got a kick mocking him with that knowledge. Sasuke's right hand, which rested on his right knee, imitated a gun's shape, with the thumb up and his index finger pointing at Naruto's flushing face.

His hand jerked upward a little. "Gotcha."

Naruto scowled at Sasuke for a moment, and huffed in slight annoyance before reclining into his previous sleeping position. "Damn, I thought you didn't hear that. At least it woke you up so whatever I spit out that time shouldn't matter! It served the purpose, dumbass!" He stared into the dark sky, recollecting past events. "Knocking you out in your current condition wasn't an option. You might sleep forever without Sakura to monitor you."

Sasuke 'hn', adjusting his body to make himself more comfortable against the tree trunk. Of course he knew all about it already. "That's for calling me a stalker, and often laying down stupid requests every time you win our spar."

'Like ordering me to make peace with Sakura, whatever the hell you mean by that, while it should be the least of your concern right now. But I guess I should thank you for being nosey.'

"Heh… yours are worse. What is it about forbidding me from eating ramen for two weeks? Or must have tomatoes in my veggie soup, huh?" He closed his eyes, attempting to frown but smile instead. That man rarely joked around, but at the moment he knew that Sasuke was amused too. 'Hehe, you just gave me another great idea on how to tick someone off, buddy.'

"Ramen shouldn't be consumed every mealtime like you did that time, idiot. And tomatoes are good for your health," Sasuke chided quietly, more to himself. "I thought you already got over it." He watched calmly as the blond slowly drifted into dreamland. Naruto scarcely slept at all since their journey started. That guy at least deserved to rest a little before they moved on with their next course of action.

Whatever questions he had wanted to ask at Naruto would have to wait until tomorrow.

Sasuke looked up at the waning moon. Another two hours before dawn. Perfect. He closed his dark orbs again; his senses began to encompass their surrounding vicinity in a vigilant watch.

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

[Hidden Stone Village, Land of Earth]

"Akiba-san, please wake up. It's time for your medicine."

He opened his eyes reluctantly to the gentle voice calling out his name. The pillow felt too comfortable, all he wanted just to sleep to his heart content. But he also knew not to cross the kunoichi, for he had had firsthand experience of how scary the woman could be if the patients refused to cooperate, years ago. Leaving with no choice, he grunted a little and tried to brace his battered body into sitting position.

"I'm sorry to bother your sleep. But you know that I must get you up periodically for medication and change your dressing."

The medic-nin put her medical kit on the small table near the bed and helped him with the task. "How do you feel right now, Akiba-san?" she asked cheerfully, filling up a glass of plain water and offered it to him. He gratefully took it from her hand and sipped it slowly. It helped to soothe his parched throat and cleared his mind from the drowsy haze.

"I think I'll live. What time is it, Yuya?" He popped the pills given to him into his mouth, and flushed them down with the rest of the water until there was not a drop left. Yuya nodded in approval and placed the now empty glass back on the table. Motioning to the man to raise up his arms a little, she dutifully removed the old bandages around his torso, checking the progress of his recovery at it.

"4.00 o'clock in the morning. Ah… it seems that your body is healing nicely. The soreness will go in time." At a curious glance from the man, Yuya answered his silent query, "Toga-san's life is not in danger. He's recovering pretty well." Her eyes followed Akiba's direction and smile at the sleeping patient on the other bed next to him. "He should wake up and be his grumpy old self tomorrow, though he should stay in bed for a couple of days." She gave him a knowing look. "Which would make him grumpier."

The man exhaled, feeling a lot better. "That's good news." He looked across the room. There was no other patient in the ward except for the two of them.

"What happens to the rest?" the jounin asked quietly, thinking about the heavy casualties on their side of the battle yesterday afternoon. The difference in their balance of power was so great that they had lost twenty-six lives of their fellow shinobi. And twenty of them had been taken down single-handedly by one person. Twenty freaking Iwa Special Force members. It would be a demoralizing blow to their manpower if words spread out due to the incident.

Yuya's hand stopped at the new binding she was doing on his left shoulder. She looked hesitate for a moment, thinking of the best way to break the news to him. Mangled corpses cannot be kept for long, they must be handled with as fast as possible.

"The bodies of your comrades had gone through the post mortem and were duly cremated. The Tsuchikage would hold a memorial service for them in the morning." She finished her wrapping and packed her things back into the medical box.

Akiba moved his head down at the answer. His eyes closed in a silent respect for those who had perished in the line of fire. They were not just shinobi on misson. Close or not, they were his comrades. Two of them were his current teammates on their border duties. They had shared laughter, pain and even got drunk together.

He would never see them again, but they would always be in his memories.

The jounin raised his face. "Thank you for telling me," he said softly. "Yuya, do you happen to know anything of our elite teams?" He wondered briefly if their bodies would be kept for further inspections on the cause of death. After all, the only living witnesses to their massacre were recuperating in that very room, and he was the only one who could talk right now.

Yuya studied his face for a while, weighing the options whether to tell him the information or not. Finally, she conceded. "I'm not sure if I should tell you this, but there is one casualty."

Akiba couldn't hold his surprise at her remark. He quickly turned his head towards her, suppressing a grunt when his bruised shoulder protested at the movement. "Just one casualty? Who?"

If Yuya sensed something strange about his reaction, she didn't ask. "Yeah. That's what I heard. Sadly, they lost Captain Kuroda. They've been really hush hush about it. I know because I saw his body. After all, I was called here..." The medic-nin stopped before she spoke more of her responsibilities to an invalid.

The man was stunned at her explanation, not caring whether she was about to reveal some classified information or not. 'That brat didn't kill them? Seriously?' Of course he didn't know. He had been unconscious not long after The Yellow Flash left the battlefield, never had the chance to see what happened next. He just woke up in Iwa's hospital a few hours ago to eat some gruel and medicine. Then he went right back to sleep, certainly not coherent enough to ask questions at that time.

" _That's not true. Toga just attacked you, and if today's event counts, everyone is helpless against you. Yet you still chose to kill all of them."_

Akiba shuddered a little. He didn't miss the sad smile of the young man looking back at him after his accusation. He could never forget those eyes. For one as young as him, he had the tired eyes of a hardened shinobi who had seen enough destruction and misery in the history of mankind, but still struggled to live with it. Eyes full of sorrow, yet never lose the determination and hope.

" _Did I, really? Whatever it is, I have my own reason. Cling to the chance you've been given to live, shinobi. Life is too precious to waste away."_

"I saw him, talked to him and I live to tell the tale," he whispered solemnly to himself. "Tsuchikage-sama, just what were you planning to do?"

"Akiba-san?" Yuya's worried voice penetrated his thoughts. Before he could assure her that he was fine, there were a few knocks at the door. It opened to reveal the stoic face of the Tsuchikage's assistant.

"Forgive me for interrupting your rest, Akiba-san. I wish to inform you that your presence is required at the headquarters as soon as you are awake this time." Another man walked inside the room, pushing a wheelchair towards him. "Oonoki-sama is concerned for your health, but your testimony is really important to help with our investigation."

The veteran jounin sighed. It would be a long day. "Alright, please take me to him."

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

"That man was not Konoha's Yellow Flash," the Tsuchikage stated grimly. "Kuroda died in vain trying to persuade an impersonator."

He had replayed his subordinates' accounts many times in his mind and reviewed the written reports until his vision turned blurry. There was only one conclusion. Not only that their hunted preys got away with crucial information, leaving casualties behind, his so-called elite forces had had their figurative asses handed to them effortlessly it was hard to believe – with their lives spared almost without injury, minus one dead, unlucky captain.

An utter humiliation to Iwa, doubled by the fact that some unknown visitors had infiltrated the country unnoticed and got involved in their business with Konoha's ANBU. He had flown to check the battlefield himself, enough to detect from the residue of chakra left by the strangers that something bizarre had taken place. Earth samples thickest with their chakra had been brought to their labs for analysis, taken from the very spot they first appeared. None of the substances being tested matched with any marked top-rated criminals or shinobi in their records, dead or alive.

Strange unknown jutsu had been used, but there was no three-pronged kunai, no such seals marking the man's proverbial technique. No formal uniforms or hitai-ate either. On the other hand, his moles had confirmed that Namikaze Minato was currently in Konoha, training a chuunin team. It denied the insinuation of them being undercover. Unless his information was chicken-feed, he would like to believe the benefits of the doubt.

Oonoki looked down from his seat at the five masked shinobi who knelt in shame in front of him. "Considering that you had to fight two extraordinary S-class opponents, I think I could deal with your failures, as disgraceful as they were. We're not samurai who must reclaim lost honor by committing seppuku, rather we're shinobi who will always use whatever resources available at our disposal to complete our mission."

His elite squad members stiffened briefly at the condescending tone. They couldn't forget his livid reaction much earlier, when they returned to report their failed mission.

"Establish an intelligence network among the countries surrounding Hi no Kuni. Target the regions that would be affected the most once the war breaks out. There is no time limit for this new mission until further notice. Don't ever reveal yourselves to the other similar friendly MOs. We need to fool them first in order to fool our enemies."

The Tsuchikage handed five similar scrolls to each of them, who stood up and stepped forward to receive it. "The rest of the mission statement is inside. You're to lead your respective group, so make sure to brief your teammates later. There are others aside from your yesterday assignment being newly included in the list as well."

"What about the impostors, Tsuchikage-sama? It seemed that they had become involved in the incident somehow. From their interaction with the ANBU team, is it wise to imply that they work for Konoha?" one of the appointed team leaders asked politely.

His eyes lit steely as he contemplated his answer. "They might, or they might not. I have my own suspicions which I can't divulge to anyone right now. They've caught my interest, so I want to know their profiles. Better yet, I want to meet them. Alive, possibly."

He barked again to his loyal subordinates. "Track any suspicious, independent shinobi movement but avoid Konoha at all cost for now. Be clandestine, and try to get as much information as possible. Pose as civilians, mercenaries for hire or whatever. I want the results, and I don't care how you retrieve them. Understood?"

"Hai, Tsuchikage-sama," they replied in unison.

"Good. Remember, secrecy is virtue. The time I let loose of all of you in the showdown is the time Iwa calls for victory."

His excitement ran high at the challenge ahead. His instincts told him that something big was brewing in the near future that was worth his interference. There was no doubt that Konoha would get wind of this too. If his prediction was true, thus, before the war began, it was a race of who could get their hands on the two mysterious shinobi first.

Right after the group disappeared upon his dismissal, his personal assistant walked inside the room. "Akiba-san is here, Oonoki-sama." The aide moved aside to give way for the wooden wheelchair being pushed by his colleague behind him. The jounin sitting on it looked a little pale, but as long as he can talk, Oonoki intended to get the full story from his points of view. There were a few things that he needed to clarify with him.

"Great. Akiba, please forgive me for not being able to pay a visit to your room for this. I was totally occupied until now. Well, shall we start right here?"

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

[Hidden Leaf Village, Land of Fire]

It was quite a hot day in Konoha, with the sun shining brightly up in the sky. To one Teuchi, the proud owner of Ramen Ichiraku, business ran as usual. Afternoon meant lunch, and lunch meant hungry people visiting his humble shop for delicious bowls of ramen in many flavors and gave him profit. To him, aside from the ups and down in sales, and the occasional praises received from his loyal customers for his secret ramen recipe, his daily routines went normally as usual, at least as normal as he had wished them to be.

He had lived his life long enough to learn that the peaceful environment he was in could be destroyed in an instant if wars broke out. Civilian he might be, but living in a shinobi village taught him a few things on survival. He would often take notes on the news whispered by other travellers and suppliers that visited his stall for a mix of business and pleasure. Of course, considering that a number of his regular patrons consisted of Konoha-nin, he felt that it was part of his civic duty to share some of the troubling news he received with them, all for the purpose to maintain such peace.

"Thank you for the delicious ramen, Teuchi-san!" One of his customers said, paying up for their meals. Teuchi beamed with delight at the praise. "You're welcome. Please come again, na?" The group of three men waved him goodbye then walked away happily with their stomachs full. He took the empty bowls left by the previous customers and put them in the sink to clean up. Just when he was about to get back, loud shouts and running footsteps were heard coming towards his stall.

A dark-haired boy stopped right at the counter, body half-turned to yell enthusiastically at his comrades who walked rather calmly behind him. He punched his right hand to the sky while his left pressed casually at the table. "I'm first again this time! Yeah!" The black-haired kid changed his position to completely face Teuchi, to fully reveal a silver-orange goggle and a grinning face. He pointed his index finger skywards. "One special miso ramen, Oji-san!"

"Alright son, sit down first. Let me take everyone's order and it'll be done in a few minutes!" Teuchi always loved energetic children, and he was quite fond of the kind-hearted boy he had known for quite some time. He smiled to greet the other three that quickly find their own stools. The only adult in the group, wearing a jounin outfit raised his hand in a salute at him then sat between Obito and Rin, a brown-haired girl with purple marks on each of her cheeks.

"Good afternoon, Teuchi-san. How is your business today?" Namikaze Minato, the teacher and leader of the chuunin team asked cheerily.

He returned the gesture in a friendly manner. "Haha, same as usual. What would you like to have for lunch, Namikaze-sensei? The one Obito ordered just now is a newly made recipe, with improved broth and extra pieces of meat." He always made sure to remember the name of his regulars and maintain good owner-customer relationship with them.

The blond turned to look at the girl and the other boy who sat next to her. "Since Teuchi-san already mentioned about this special ramen, I think I would like to have a taste too. What about you two, Rin and Kakashi?"

Rin put her fingers near her mouth while her head looked up above her, as if trying to decide whether to order her usual meal or try a new one. "Em, really sensei? Hold on a minute... It's a nice change from my favorite one, but what if I don't like this new taste?" She was still pondering on her decision when Kakashi, a chuunin with spiky white hair suddenly spoke, "That sounds delicious. I would like to try it too."

"You made a right choice, kid. Three special miso ramen for my regular customers. What about you, young lady?" Rin blushed a little at the remark, all the while feeling embarrassed at her indecision. Her sensei smiled encouragingly at her, "You don't have to think too hard, Rin. It's just lunch. You can always eat your favorite ramen later."

"Oh come on Rin, I'm soo hungry right now… please quickly make your order before my energy runs out and I die of starvation here!" Obito whined, his face already slumped on the table. Both of his arms flanked his head lethargically.

The girl quickly raised her hands in guilt, face totally red in mortification. "Fine, fine. I'll take the special ramen too, Teuchi-san. I'm sorry for troubling everyone!" Satisfied at her pick, Teuchi exclaimed, "Four special miso ramen then. I'll add more extras to make sure you won't regret it!" The stall owner moved over to the small kitchen behind the counter and started to prepare his customer's orders.

Team Minato waited patiently for their lunch, Obito a little bit restless and still full of energy despite his previous claim. Minato sat quietly at the stool, ignoring the chatters among the kids. He had finished their training for today and had allowed them to take some D-class missions on their own to strengthen their teamwork and earn some extra money in the evening. So far, each of them had showed great progress in their training. Kakashi was a prodigy, Rin showed great potential as a medic-nin, while Obito… he was a talented Uchiha, though he might not know that yet.

An Uchiha who was still waiting for his Sharingan to manifest, and hid his frustrations by exchanging spats with Kakashi, whom he regarded as his friend and rival. Sadly, the other person didn't really feel the same way.

Minato tilted his head a little, sensing something in the area that caught his attention. To other people, he was always viewed as someone who looked calm and collected personality-wise, but in truth he was only among those who could hide their problems better than others. Today, he was a little bit eager to leave his teammates to their own devices and took care of something that had been gnawing at him since last week.

"…And who agreed to race with you here?" The deadpan voice came from Kakashi Hatake. The lower half of his face was covered by dark blue mask, while two bored-looking visible eyes stared at something distant. Obito instantly looked at his left, pouting a little bit, then crossed his arms and said, "Well, I'm hungry, and you did run along just now. Besides, it's not like you're paying…"

"Never count on it."

"Cheapskate."

"Idiot."

"Jerkass."

"Sore loser."

"Why you…!"

Minato casually stood up and grabbed the back of Obito's collar with his left hand before the boy managed to jump at Kakashi. "Alright, that's enough, Obito", he said quietly, the voice oozing hidden warning. He turned towards the white-haired chuunin. "And please stop with the provocation, Kakashi. We're trying to have a peaceful lunch here. Or…" His eyes glinted in such a way that they sent shivers down the spine of his team members, "Would you prefer we skip this and get back to the training area?"

All three of them suddenly found themselves sitting properly at the table, each started to perspire whenever they remember one of the few occasions Minato-sensei dropped his warm personality. Their sensei was a cool and respectable person, though some idiots who ever looked down and took advantage of his doormat attitude had learned their lessons painfully. More than often they would return home with sore bodies and some mental notes to never cross him again.

But he was so used to Obito and Kakashi's antics that it shouldn't even tick him off like this. What had happened? Rin stole concern glances at her sensei, realizing that Obito and Kakashi also noticed the difference. Something had been bothering their sensei, and of course they would never know anything about it. Minato-sensei was just too secretive.

"Lunch is coming!" Teuchi announced from his kitchen. The ramen stall owner didn't want to get involved with his customers' problems, but what better way to dissuade a friendly spat than a few bowls of delicious ramen?

By the time Teuchi put their food on the table, Minato had already returned to his usual self, smiling and helping to pass the bowls and chopsticks to his teammates. The rigid atmosphere gradually vanished as it was replaced by the wonderful smell of hot ramen. Obito was inhaling his bowl when their sensei suddenly stood up again and said, "I'm sorry, kids. Something came up and I got to leave." He put a few Ryo on the table, nodding to Teuchi-san. "The bill is on me. Obito, you can have my portion if you'd like to."

"Ah… thank you Minato-sensei," Obito said, grinning ruefully. He picked up his bowl and sat on his sensei's vacated stool near Rin's left side.

"Please enjoy your lunch and see you again in a few days!" That was the last thing the three of them heard from their sensei before he waved apologetically at them and vanished into thin air.

"What was that all about?" Rin asked in confusion.

"Dunno. Let's eat." Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, splitting the disposable chopsticks into two parts and began to lower his mask and eat his ramen. Obito was quick to agree. "Yeah, let's eat. We must appreciate sensei's treat."

**ooo…ooOOoo…ooo**

Namikaze Minato appeared in a clearing not far from Konoha Proper and looked up in the direction of one of the highest tree branches on the fourth tree from his right, signalling that he was aware of the persons who had asked him to leave his chuunin team and meet up as requested. The ends of his mouth curved slightly, proud at their precaution. "The area is secured. Please show yourselves to me."

Two men dressed in complete ANBU attire, with porcelain masks covering their face jumped from the tree and stepped towards him. They knelt in salute, then stood up and ripped their masks open as a show of respect and sincere intention. Minato nodded, acknowledging their identities and gave them permission to speak.

"Greetings, Namikaze-sama, we're sorry to have to ask you to come here. Condition red was issued to all ANBU members. Something serious had happened and your immediate presence was required at the Hokage-sama office." One of the two ANBUs instantly donned his tiger mask once he delivered the message.

His partner followed suit, but not before he mentioned the second message, "Kitsune team is safe, but they are in need of medical attention… thought you would like to know that."

Minato's expression didn't change, but inwardly he felt an incredible sense of relief at the news. "Thank you very much for your information, Oodora, Kazunoko. Let's go meet the Hokage."

**To be continued…**

* * *

Note on September 24, 2013 from fanfiction.net:

Can't believe that people are still reading and subscribing to this fic.

I'm still alive, right now. Somewhere in 2009, I left my crazy job and changed to another which barely required the skills in written or spoken English. I write to improve my English, in case you've forgotten. Been posted at a rural/village area for more than three years, I enjoyed a laidback life there. I'm sure some of you felt like killing me for not updating, but I didn't own a computer and any internet connection at that time except in my workplace. I managed to get a laptop in 2011, but I got demotivated to write as I don't really use the language in my job or in my daily life, and I simply became lazy (the main reason). And actually a large portion of this chapter was written bit by bit during my free time in those years. Behold my fellow readers that you were probably reading the longest time taken for a written chapter in fanfiction history! Yeah, it took more than four years and I didn't feel proud at all. *Sigh*

I changed job again last year in September. Somehow it's hectic too, like the job I left in 2009. But at least now it motivates me to write a little, though the English usage is still at minimum level. I'll update again within ten years. Ja ne.


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